Western Heat Wave All-Time Record Highs And Streaks – The Weather Channel

A Western heat wave has already smashed all-time record highs and heat streaks, even by standards of the Desert Southwest and California.

This scorching heat kicked off around the July Fourth holiday weekend, and will only slowly relent in some areas this weekend.

(WEATHER MAPS: Temperature | Heat Index | 10-Day US Forecast)

Last Sunday, July 7, the official temperature sensor at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas climbed to 120 degrees.

That crushed the city's all-time record of 117 degrees, set in 1942 and tied in 2005, 2013, 2017 and 2021.

But that wasn't the end of it.

Vegas soared to 119 degrees two days later on July 9, then 118 degrees on July 10 and 11. They sweated through their four hottest days in 87 years of records, and a record seven straight days with highs of 115 degrees or more.

Perhaps what's most stunning about this is the airport sits about 1,000 feet higher in elevation and 250 miles northwest of Phoenix, Arizona. Phoenix has only reached 120 degrees three times in 130 years, and hasn't done so since July 1995.

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People cool off in misters along the Las Vegas Strip, Sunday, July 7, 2024, in Las Vegas. A heat wave is spreading across the Western U.S., the National Weather Service said, sending many residents in search of a cool haven from the dangerously high temperatures.

Among reporting stations with at least 70 years of records, 10 other locations, all in California, tied or set their all-time record highs during this heat wave. Most are plotted in the map below.

Palm Springs (124 degrees on July 5) topped its previous all-time standard from 2021, 1995 and 1993.

Barstow, in California's Mojave Desert north of Los Angeles, tied its all-time record (118 degrees) three days in a row from July 7-9.

Bishop, in California's Owens Valley at an elevation of just over 4,100 feet, chalked up five straight days with highs in the 110s in this heat wave. They had only two such days prior to this heat wave dating to 1943.

Finally, in northern L.A. County's Antelope Valley, both Lancaster and Palmdale soared to 115 degrees, tying the all-time record in Lancaster and topping the record in Palmdale.

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All-time record highs tied or set during the early-mid July 2024 Western heat wave

This heat wave was also notable for how long it lasted. Here are the heat streaks that tied or smashed all-time records, in addition to the Las Vegas streak mentioned earlier:

Not surprisingly given this heat wave, it's been the hottest first 10 days of July on record for more than a dozen major reporting stations in the West from Washington state to Arizona, according to the Southeast Regional Climate Center.

Among those cities are Portland, Oregon; Sacramento, California; and Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona.

Rankings of July 1-10 temperatures across the country. Cities with a "1" had their record warmest July 1-10 period on record.

The world record-holder for heat, California's Death Valley National Park, fell short of that all-time high.

But it was still searing.

For over a week straight, daytime highs topped out at 125 degrees or hotter, reaching 129 degrees on July 7. And their early-morning low temperature, if you want to call it that, dipped to 99 degrees on July 9.

Following that world record of 134 degrees in a July 1913 heat wave, Death Valley has only reached 130 degrees twice since, in July 2021 and August 2020.

As usual, that only attracted tourists wanting to experience extreme heat. Unfortunately, at least one death was attributed to the heat in the park, the Associated Press reported.

Tourists take photographs with the thermometer at the Furnace Creek Visitor Center during a dangerous heat wave, Tuesday, July 9, 2024, in Death Valley, Calif. The thermostat is imprecise, registering the temperature anywhere from 1 to 5 degrees Fahrenheit higher than more precise instruments and providing a more impressive reading for pictures.

Intense heat is typical before the heart of the Southwest's rainy monsoon season shifts into high gear and expands.

In this case, though, a bubble of high pressure known as a heat dome set up camp for days over California and western Nevada, nosing north into the Pacific Northwest.

The strength and persistence of the heat dome and its sinking, dry air allowed temperatures to soar as far north as Washington state.

The upper-level weather pattern from July 4-9, 2024, featured a prominent upper-level heat dome over California and the adjacent Great Basin, nosing north into the Pacific Northwest.

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Jonathan Erdman is a senior meteorologist at weather.com and has been covering national and international weather since 1996. His lifelong love of meteorology began with a close encounter with a tornado as a child in Wisconsin. He completed a Bachelor's degree in physics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, then a Master's degree working with dual-polarization radar and lightning data at Colorado State University. Extreme and bizarre weather are his favorite topics. Reach out to him on X (formerly Twitter), Threads, Facebook and Bluesky.

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Western Heat Wave All-Time Record Highs And Streaks - The Weather Channel