Las Vegas has set a new record after marking a fifth consecutive day over 115F (46C), amid a lingering hot spell that will continue scorching much of the US into the weekend.
According to reports, the blazing hot temperatures climbed to 115F shortly after 1pm at Harry Reid international airport, breaking the old mark of four consecutive days above 115F set in July 2005. The brutal milestone marks yet another record for the Nevada desert city this week: on Sunday, Las Vegas hit an all-time high of 120F (48.8C). Even by desert standards, the prolonged baking the city is experiencing is nearly unprecedented.
“This is the most extreme heatwave in the history of record-keeping in Las Vegas since 1937,” said John Adair, a meteorologist and veteran of three decades at the National Weather Service office in southern Nevada.
Keith Bailey and Lee Doss met early Wednesday morning at Las Vegas park to beat the heat and exercise their dogs, Breakie, Ollie and Stanley.
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“If I don’t get out by 8.30 in the morning, then it’s not going to happen that day,” Bailey said, wearing a sunhat while the dogs played in the grass.
Alyse Sobosan said this July has been the hottest in the 15 years she has lived in Las Vegas. She said she doesn’t step outside during the day if she can help it, and she waits until 9pm or later to walk her dogs.
“It’s oppressively hot,” she said. “It’s like you can’t really live your life.”
The extended heatwave comes with serious dangers, health officials have emphasized.
“Even people of average age who are seemingly healthy can suffer heat illness when it’s so hot it’s hard for your body to cool down,” said Alexis Brignola, an epidemiologist at the Southern Nevada Health District.
While hotels and casinos kept visitors cool with giant AC units, the scorching heat presented acute danger for homeless residents and others without access to safe environments.
Officials have set up emergency cooling centers at community centers across southern Nevada. Firefighters in Henderson, Nevada, last week became the first in the region to deploy what city spokesperson Madeleine Skains called “polar pods”.
The pods, first deployed in Phoenix, can be filled with water and ice to immerse a medical patient in cold water on the way to a hospital.
The intense heatwave hitting Vegas has been searing much of the US west in recent days, with several places setting heat records and reporting fatalities.
In Oregon, the city of Portland saw record daily temperatures on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and Salem set a new record, hitting 103F on Sunday. The excessive temperatures are suspected to have caused at least eight deaths in the state, the state medical examiner’s office said on Tuesday.
Story was adapted from the Guardian.
