This is just a weather prediction, so it is subject to revision, but the National Weather Service is expecting an historic heatwave in the American West next week, probably peaking next weekend. Temperatures in Death Valley will approach 130 degrees F, and Las Vegas will top 115 degrees F, if predictions pan out. The heat wave may extend to the Canadian Border.
From Andrew Freedman at Climate Central:
The furnace-like heat is coming courtesy of a “stuck” weather pattern that is setting up across the U.S. and Canada. By early next week, the jet stream — a fast-moving river of air at airliner altitudes that is responsible for steering weather systems — will form the shape of a massive, slithering snake with what meteorologists refer to as a deep “ridge” across the Western states, and an equally deep trough seting up across the Central and Eastern states.
…
One study, published in the Proceedings of the American Academy of Sciences in 2012, found that the odds of extremely hot summers have significantly increased in tandem with global temperatures. Those odds, the study found, were about 1-in-300 during the 1951-1980 timeframe, but that had increased to nearly 1-in-10 by 1981-2010.
Records may be broken. Drink plenty of fluids!
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I saw the official NWS advisory on one of the Weather Underground blogs this morning. The amazing part (to me) was that *minimum* temperatures in Las Vegas this weekend are expected to be 90F or higher. It may be a dry heat, but that’s still bloody hot.
90F overnight? That would be nice. We normally spend several months without getting that low (Phoenix.)
And for what it’s worth, the record in Phoenix was a bit warmer than that. This week was the anniversary of our record high: 50C, hot enough that the tables for takeoff flap positioning didn’t go high enough and as a result planes were grounded at one of the busiest airports in the country.
Doesn’t look like we’ll be exceeding that one this time around, but there’ll be another June. Or maybe the current weather will keep the summer monsoons east of here a bit longer.
It’s still going to be hot enough (41C at 20:00) that we’ll be turning on the air conditioning early this year despite the comfortably low dew point (1C).
We’ll leave the AC on while we’re out of town for the cats — they like it warmer than we do but I suspect that there are limits.
Go, Barstow!