Across the US Southwest, temperature records were broken on Thursday as the mercury climbed past 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43 degrees Celsius) in certain areas.
The region’s first heat wave of the year was expected to persist for at least another day.
Even though the official start of summer was still a couple of weeks away, about half of Arizona, California, and Nevada were under an excessive heat alert, which the National Weather Service stated would continue until Friday evening.
During a campaign rally for presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump in Phoenix, 11 individuals suffered from heat exhaustion by late afternoon and were transported to the hospital. They were treated and later discharged, according to fire officials.
The weather service in Phoenix characterized the city as facing “dangerously hot conditions.”
In Las Vegas, the Clark County Fire Department reported responding to at least 12 calls for heat exposure since midnight Wednesday. Nine of these calls resulted in patients requiring hospital treatment. A county spokesperson mentioned that the actual number might be higher, as heat can also contribute to other types of emergency calls to the fire department, such as those related to alcohol intoxication or incidents of fainting, dizziness, or nausea.
New record highs on Thursday included 113 F (45 C) in Phoenix, surpassing the previous record of 111 F (44 C) set in 2016, and 111 F (44 C) in Las Vegas, exceeding the 110 F (43 C) mark last seen in 2010. Various other areas in Arizona, California, and Nevada also broke records by a few degrees.
The heatwave arrived earlier than usual, even in regions farther north at higher elevations, which are typically cooler by about a dozen degrees. This was evident in Reno, Nevada, where the normal high of 81 F (27 C) for this time of year spiked to a record 98 F (37 C) on Thursday.
The National Weather Service in Reno predicted a slight cooling trend over the weekend, but temperatures would remain high, particularly in central and southern Arizona, where triple-digit highs, reaching up to 110 F (43 C), were expected.
