ARIZONA + JUNE= HEAT
Tuesday’s high of 119 was 4th-warmest ever
For those folks who think that as long as it’s going to be hot, it might as well be historically hot, Tuesday was your day.
How does starting the summer with a 119-degree high strike you?
Only three times in recorded history — that’s more than 44,500 days — has Phoenix’s high temperature been greater than it was Tuesday.
Shortly after 2 p.m., the temperature at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport reached 119 degrees, tying for fourth on the all-time list with June 29, 2013. That’s just three degrees shy of the highest temperature ever recorded in the city: 122 degrees on June 26, 1990.
Tuesday’s high marked the second time in as many days that Phoenix had temperatures among its highest ever. Monday topped out at 118 degrees, to tie for fifth on the all-time list.
Monday and Tuesday’s high temperatures were records for those dates.
The previous record for June 20 was 116 degrees, set in 2016. That record fell at 1:27 p.m. Tuesday, when the temperature at Sky Harbor reached 117 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.
The extreme temperatures are expected to stick around for a while. Today’s National Weather Service forecast calls for a high of 117 degrees, which would be a record for June 21. The extended outlook has Phoenix sweating under high temperatures of at least 113 degrees through Sunday.
The excessive-heat warning issued by the National Weather Service has been extended until 9 p.m. on Sunday. When it was first issued last week, it was supposed to expire today.
The heat wave has people at the many cooling and hydration stations at churches and community stations busy trying to provide relief for people suffering from the heat.
While the hot weather is making people miserable, it may pay benefits in the long run.
According to Randy Cerveny, climate researcher and professor at Arizona State University, this heat is what we need to bring on monsoon rain. The heat helps facilitate a shift in wind patterns that brings moisture up from the Gulf of California that helps produce rain.
“If you notice (Tuesday), we had clouds in the sky while there weren’t any (Monday),” Cerveny said. “The heat helps draw that moisture up in the state. In order to get our monsoon storms, we need to have this heat in late June.”
Just when that moisture would result in rain in the Phoenix area remains to be seen.
There have been storms in northern and southeastern Arizona this week, but they haven’t reached the Valley.
Cerveny said he couldn’t say when we might see some rain.
“Monsoon forecasting is some of the trickiest in the country,” Cerveny said.