Extreme early-summer heat wave peaks in western US. Las Vegas was baking in 111 degrees Fahrenheit (44 degrees Celsius) heat, while in the Death Valley desert the mercury was expected to shoot past 120F, due to an oppressive high-pressure weather system smothering the region.
https://phys.org/news/2024-06-extreme-early-summer-peaks-western.html
by Wagamaga
2 comments
An extreme early-summer heat wave was expected to peak Thursday across much of the western United States, where millions were scrambling to cope with the sudden sharp rise in temperatures.
Las Vegas was baking in 111 degrees Fahrenheit (44 degrees Celsius) heat, while in the Death Valley desert the mercury was expected to shoot past 120F, due to an oppressive high-pressure weather system smothering the region.
“Widespread high and low temperature records are likely to be tied or broken between California, Nevada and Arizona today,” said the National Weather Service, in a bulletin.
Experts warn the unseasonably scorching temperatures could signal the start of a brutal summer.
Dangerously hot temperatures in Las Vegas have been running 10-15 degrees above average, and an excessive heat advisory was extended into Saturday.
Cooling stations have been opened in the desert gambling metropolis, and some events including a farmers’ market have been forced to move indoors to escape the furnace.
“One of the things with it being so hot so quickly is we really haven’t had an opportunity to acclimate to the heat,” Glen Simpson, senior director at Community Ambulance, told Las Vegas-based ABC affiliate Channel 13.
“Locals just aren’t used to it, even though they may have grown up here, spending every summer out here, their bodies haven’t acclimated to that.”
Amazing in an era of climate change and migration, more people are moving *into* the Mojave/Sonoran deserts than moving out.
I doubt they’ll stay for long though. As someone who was born & grew up there (before moving to nicer pastures), the desert is a *hard place* to live. The people who have lived there for generations will be fine. The newcomers, not so much.