Hot in the Southwest and Texas: Almost, but no cigar!

Hot in the Southwest and Texas: Almost, but no cigar!

Saturday, June 29th, saw most sites in Arizona, Utah, Nevada, and the desert region of southern California come within 1°-3° of their all-time heat records. Some significant sites saw their June monthly records broken. A very brief summary is posted herein.

The most significant (meaning for a site with at least 100 years of observation) record set on Saturday, June 29th was Palm Springs, California where the temperature peaked at 122°F (records go back to 1908). This was a June record, previous being 121° on June 29, 1994, and just 1°F short of their all-time record of 123° set on August 1, 1993. Salt Lake City, Utah reached 105° today (and yesterday) breaking their June record for heat (previous being 104° on June 21, 1961), their all-time record is 107° on July 13, 2002. Phoenix, Arizona apparently reached 119°, their 4th highest temperature ever measured but short of their June or all-time record of 122° set on June 28, 1990. Death Valley reached 127° short of their June record (128° in June 1994). Las Vegas hit 115° again (same as Friday June 28th). In a story that strains credulity, some music concert promoter thought there was no problem in hosting an outdoor concert in such heat. Hundreds of people had to be rescued by Las Vegas medical emergency services after the concert promoter’s private health staff failed to keep up with the heat exhaustion victims. Hope it was a good band…but, hey, how could anyone play music, already a fairly exhausting task, in such heat? Not sure if the band members also had to be rescued.

The temperatures didn’t quite make the all-time grade in the region as a result of a high altitude cirrus layer, remnants of dissipating monsoon-induced storms that developed over the mountains of Arizona and California. This may also inhibit temperatures on Sunday from reaching all-time record-breaking levels. It takes a perfect confluence of atmospheric conditions to break all-time heat records in the desert regions of the Southwest: powerful upper-level atmospheric high pressure, clear skies, and diurnal heating. All but two of these were in place today. The clear skies were lacking.

Meanwhile, almost forgotten in the media focus on the heat in the Southwest, Houston and San Antonio, Texas recorded their hottest June temperatures on record Saturday. Houston’s Int’l Airport measured 107° (previous record 105° on numerous occasions) and San Antonio 108° (previous 107° on June 15, 1998) It was 108° in Austin as well (record remains 109° set just last year on June 26th).

I’ll post an update on Sunday, June 30th, around 7 p.m. PST when the data for the day has come in, and a more comprehensive overview of this historic heat wave in the week to come.

Christopher C. Burt
Weather Historian