Phoenix hits at least 100 degrees for 100 days in a row, shattering record
Being over 100 every day of summer led to Phoenix setting its hottest meteorological summer on record, with data stretching back to 1896. The heat has been responsible for hundreds of deaths through the summer, Maricopa County officials said.
Several dozen cities record their hottest summers on record in 2024
There were 87 sites that recorded their hottest summer on record this year, part of over 500 that had at least a Top 10 hottest summer. On the flip side, not one cold summer day record was set in the continental US.
PHOENIX — Triple-digit heat for several days in a row in the Desert Southwest in the summer is nothing new, but it does make waves when the streak itself reaches triple digits.
Phoenix reached 100 degrees… again… on Tuesday, marking the 100th consecutive day reaching the century mark.
The city set the record weeks ago — the old record was 76 set in 1993. The record itself should be easily bested by a month on Monday as the extended forecast for Phoenix predicts high temperatures well over 100 for at least the next week.
The sun shines through a saguaro cactus in Phoenix, Arizona, on June 7, 2024.
(Jim WATSON / AFP / Getty Images)
Being over 100 every day of summer led to Phoenix setting its hottest meteorological summer on record, with data stretching back to 1896. The average temperature — which is found by taking the high and low temperatures and dividing by 2 — between June 1 and Aug. 31 was 98.9 degrees, breaking the record set last year at 97.0 degrees. The record broke by average high temperature too, for the first time averaging over 110 degrees (110.4) for the three-month period.
July’s average temperature of 101.1 was only the second time a major city has had an average monthly temperature over 100 degrees; the other happened last July in Phoenix.
Hundreds of deaths attributed to heat around Phoenix through the summer
So far, the heat has been directly attributed to 103 deaths in Maricopa County, which includes the Phoenix metro area, with another 74 deaths where heat exposure was a contributing factor, county officials said in their weekly update. But there are still over 400 deaths under investigation where heat may be a contributing factor.
Last year's summer ended with 645 confirmed heat-related deaths, compared to 425 in the summer of 2022.
PHOENIX'S SUMMER OF 2023 HEAT KILLED OVER 600 PEOPLE, REPORT SAYS
But Phoenix certainly wasn’t alone in breaking heat records this summer.
"Essentially every long term climate site in Arizona also recorded their hottest summer as well," the National Weather Service office in Phoenix posted on X Sunday.
The records stretched across the Arizona border. Las Vegas set all-time summer heat records too, with an average high temperature of 107.6 degrees, besting its old mark by 1.4 degrees, set in 1940.
You might remember earlier this summer Las Vegas exceeded what had been its hottest temperature on record (117 degrees) four times in the same week, peaking at 120 degrees.
Overall in the U.S., 87 climate sites recorded their hottest summers on record, with over 500 registering summers in their Top 10, according to the FOX Forecast Center.
No city set a record for their coldest summer day, the FOX Forecast Center said.