Vegas is on a record hot streak
The mercury reaches 117 degrees, and the heat wave hits even harder in Arizona.
LAS VEGAS — For much of the afternoon, outdoor dining areas and patios along the Las Vegas Strip were empty as the hot sun pounded the streets and sidewalks relentlessly.
Near the Linq Hotel & Casino, spray misters attached to tall posts outside gamely tried to combat the heat — though the water evaporated quickly. There were warnings throughout the day from county officials urging people to drink plenty of water. Humane societies reminded people to not let pets walk on pavement to avoid scalded paws.
Throughout the casino properties, pools were filled, drinks were emptied and the city rolled on despite tying its hottest temperature in history.
Las Vegas hit 117 degrees late Tuesday afternoon, tying a record that has happened only three other times in the city’s history, the first in 1937 and the most recent four years ago.
It was a relative cool spot compared with Yuma in neighboring Arizona, however, where the mercury hit 120 degrees. Blythe, Calif., on the border with Arizona, reached 121 degrees.
Arizona, essentially the bull’s-eye for the high-pressure system that was covering much of the Southwest, saw its capital hit 118 degrees by late Tuesday. That was 2 degrees off the record high.
The weather was so severe that it caused dozens of flights to be delayed or canceled out of Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport — the second straight sweltering day it happened.
The Salt River Project, a public power utility, on Monday delivered a record amount of energy to its Phoenix-area retail customers. From 5 p.m. to 6 p.m., the company delivered an estimated retail peak demand of 6,981 megawatts. That peak eclipsed the previous record of 6,873 megawatts set last year.
American Airlines said seven flights were delayed out of Phoenix and 43 regional flights were canceled because of the heat Tuesday.
The airline said the Bombardier CRJ regional aircraft can operate under a maximum temperature of 118 degrees. Those are largely the American Eagle flights operated by Mesa and SkyWest, with 90 departures and 90 arrivals daily.
There were four heat-related delays out of McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas on Monday, but none were reported Tuesday.
Christine Crews, spokeswoman for the airport, said in higher temperatures it used a longer east-west runway for some of the larger planes with heavier loads. The higher the temperatures get, the thinner the air gets, and more speed is needed for planes to take off.
It was enough of an issue that after Hainan Airlines launched the first two nonstop flights from Las Vegas to Beijing in late 2016, it announced in May it was changing the departure times out of McCarran in the summer from late afternoon to early morning because of the heat.
Phoenix and Las Vegas are expected to stay in the triple digits throughout the week, though Tuesday was supposed to be the hottest day of the week.