PHOENIX (AP) – A record string of daily highs over 43.3 degrees Celsius (°C) in Phoenix, United States ended on Monday as the dangerous heat wave that suffocated the Southwest throughout July receded slightly with cooling monsoon rains.
The historic heat began blasting the region in June, stretching from Texas across New Mexico and Arizona and into California’s desert. Phoenix and its suburbs sweltered more and longer than most, with several records including the 31 consecutive days of 43.4°C weather. The previous record was 18 straight days, set in 1974.
“The streak was finally broken on Monday, when the high topped out at 42.2°C at 3.10pm.
“The high temperature for Phoenix today is 42.2°C,” meteorologist for the National Weather Service Jessica Leffel said at 5pm.
“The record streak of 31 straight days of 43°C+ temperatures has ended,” the weather service said on social media.
“The high temperature at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport reached 42.2°C degrees this afternoon.”
The reprieve was expected to be brief, with the forecast calling for highs again above 43°C for several days later in the week. And National Weather Service meteorologist Matthew Hirsch said August could be even hotter than July.
But residents and visitors were taking what they could get.
“It’s not going to last more than a couple of days, but I’m enjoying this break,” said Christine Bertaux, 76, who was cooling off on Monday at a downtown day centre for older people who are homeless.
“It has been REALLY hot here!” said Jeffrey Sharpe, of Kenosha, Wisconsin, who was in town for a long weekend that on Monday included watching his son’s two poodles frolic in a grassy dog park.
“But today it was about 29°C, more like Wisconsin.”
Phoenix also sweated through a record 16 consecutive days when overnight lows didn’t dip below 90 degrees (32.2 degrees Celsius), making it hard for people to cool off after the sun went down.
In California, Death Valley, long considered the hottest place on Earth, flirted in July with some of the hottest temperatures ever recorded, reaching 52.5°C on July 16 at the aptly named Furnace Creek.
The planet’s hottest recorded temperature ever was 56.67°C in July 1913 at Furnace Creek, according to the World Meteorological Organization, the body recognised as keeper of world records.
And in Nevada, also on July 16, Las Vegas briefly reached 46.6°C to tie the record for that date set in 1998.
