LAS VEGAS — Las Vegas residents accustomed to ignoring the heat are now keeping an eye on the thermometer as the desert city on Wednesday is on track to set a record for the most consecutive days with temperatures above 115 degrees Fahrenheit (46.1 degrees Celsius) amid a ongoing heat wave that will continue to plague much of the US into the weekend.
On Tuesday, Las Vegas again flirted with the all-time temperature record of 120°F (48.8°C) set on Sunday, but held off for a new daily record of 119°F (48.3°C), breaking the old record of 116°F (46.6°C) set for that date in 2021. Weather experts predict the city will likely top 115°F (46.1°C) for the fifth day in a row on Wednesday.
Even by desert standards, the prolonged heat experienced by Nevada’s largest city is unprecedented.
“This is the most extreme heat wave in the history of record keeping in Las Vegas since 1937,” said meteorologist John Adair, a three-decade veteran of the National Weather Service’s southern Nevada office.
Tuesday’s high tied the record of four consecutive days above 115 F (46.1 C) set in July 2005. Adair said the record could extend through Friday.
Alyse Sobosan said this July has been the hottest in the 15 years she has lived in Las Vegas. Sobosan, a charter school counselor on summer vacation, said she avoids going outside during the day if she can help it and waits until 9 p.m. or later to walk her dogs.
“It’s oppressively hot,” she said. “It’s like you can’t really live your life.”
Health officials stress that it is dangerously hot.
“Even average-aged people who appear healthy can develop heat illness if it’s so hot that it’s hard for your body to cool down,” said Alexis Brignola, an epidemiologist with the Southern Nevada Health District.
The scorching heat wave that gripped much of the US also led to record daily temperatures. high temperatures in Oregon, where it is believed to have caused six deaths, the state coroner’s office said Tuesday. More than 161 million people A heat warning was in effect across the US on Tuesday, especially in the western states.
Dozens of locations in the west of the country equaled or broke previous heat records last weekend and this is expected to continue throughout the week.
The heat was accused of the death of a motorcyclist over the weekend in Death Valley National Park. On Tuesday, tourists in Death Valley lined up for photos in front of a giant thermometer that read 120 F (48.9 C).
Simon Pell and Lisa Gregory from London left their air-conditioned camper van in the middle of the day to experience a heatwave that would be unthinkable at home.
“I don’t need a thermometer to know it’s hot,” Pell said. “You hear about it in stories and nature documentaries. But I just wanted to experience what it would feel like. … It’s an incredible experience.”
Death Valley is considered one of the most extreme environments on Earth. The highest temperature ever officially recorded on Earth was 134°F (56.67°C) in July 1913 in Death Valley, although some experts dispute that measurement and say the real record was 130°F (54.4°C), recorded there in July 2021.
Record temperatures for that date were also reached in parts of Oregon and Washington on Tuesday, with Portland reaching 103°F (39.4°C) and Salem and Eugene reaching 105°F (40.5°C). Temperatures also topped 100 degrees in Idaho.
Phoenix, which saw the highest temperature ever recorded in the first eight days of July since 1885, on Tuesday tied the daily record of 116 degrees Fahrenheit (46.6 degrees Fahrenheit) set in 1958.
Tuesday’s high of 106°F (41.1°C) in Reno, Nevada, broke the daily record of 104°F (40°C) set in 2017 and extended the longest streak ever of 105°F (40.5°C) or higher to four days. Before this week, at an elevation of 4,500 feet (1,372 meters), the city had never been that hot for more than two consecutive days in records dating back to 1888.
The heat wave in the US came as global temperatures hit a record high in June for the 13th month in a row and marked the 12th consecutive month that the world was 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than in pre-industrial times, according to Europe’s climate service Copernicus. Most of this heat, trapped by human-caused climate change, comes from long-term warming from greenhouse gases released from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas, scientists say.
In Las Vegas, hotels and casinos are keeping visitors cool with massive AC units. But for homeless residents and others without access to safe spaces, officials have set up emergency cooling centers in community centers across Southern Nevada.
Firefighters in Henderson, Nevada, last week became the first in the region to deploy what city spokeswoman Madeleine Skains called “polar pods” to cool down a person showing symptoms of heatstroke or a related medical emergency.
Skains said four vehicles, including battalion chiefs in the city of more than 330,000 people, have equipment similar to the units first put into service a month ago in PhoenixThey can be filled with water and ice to immerse a medical patient in cold water on the way to the hospital.
Extreme heat and a prolonged drought in the west have also led to dried-out vegetation, fueling wildfires.
A new blaze in Oregon, dubbed the Larch Creek Fire, quickly grew to more than 5 square miles (12 square kilometers) Tuesday night as flames tore through grassland in Wasco County. Evacuations were ordered for isolated homes about 15 miles (24 kilometers) south of The Dalles.
In California, firefighters were battling at least 18 wildfires on Tuesday, including a 42-square-mile (109-square-kilometer) blaze that prompted evacuations for about 200 homes in the mountains of Santa Barbara County. The Lake Fire was only 16% contained, and meteorologists warned of an “unstable combination” of high heat, low humidity and northwest winds developing late in the day.
Northeast of Los Angeles, the 2-square-mile Vista Fire raged, tearing through trees in the San Bernardino National Forest and sending a massive smoke plume visible across the region.
The National Weather Service said extreme heat warnings have been extended through Saturday morning for most of the Southwest U.S.
“It’s not over yet,” the Reno service said.
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Weber reported from Los Angeles. AP reporters Anita Snow in Phoenix; Ty O’Neil in Death Valley, Calif.; Rio Yamat in Las Vegas; and Scott Sonner and Gabe Stern in Reno, Nev., contributed to this report.