Photo: JIM WATSON / AFP / Getty Images
This Friday, some flights at the Las Vegas airport were canceled due to high temperatures, in what may be the strongest heat wave in decades.
“It’s always hot, but it’s not always that hot,” said Clay Morgan, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Las Vegas, who called the high temperature unusual, which is approaching the all-time record.
The city could reach an all-time high of 117 degrees this weekend, Morgan said. That only happened four times, most recently in 2017.
At McCarran International Airport there were delays in flights and some cancellations due to heat, when they were already registered 116 degrees.
The Federal Aviation Administration implemented a traffic management program due to heat and wind, the agency reported and the airport.
Southwest Airlines reported on Twitter to frustrated passengers that several of its flights from Las Vegas were canceled due to extreme heat . The airline did not immediately respond to our questions about how many flights were affected.
Excessive heat warnings cover a large swath of the western United States. States, from California and southeastern Oregon to parts of Utah and Arizona.
There is a large high pressure dome located over the region causing Very hot temperatures in many parts of the West, Morgan explained.
Grand Junction Airport, Colorado, set an all-time high of 107 degrees , breaking the previous record of 106, which was registered in 1922.
Last month was the hottest June on record , said the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
And the heat in the northwest d the Pacific was deadly . As of Friday, eighty-three people have died due to the heat in Oregon , the medical examiner’s office said in a statement issued by state police, and others 32 deaths were under investigation.
In the heat of the weekend, California officials urged residents to conserve energy. Additionally, cooling centers across the state are open.
California issued a “flexible alert” through Saturday, asking the public to retain the electricity in the face of high temperatures and a wildfire in southeastern Oregon, which threatens to destroy power lines.
In Sacramento, recorded 106 degrees soon after noon on Friday. The Sacramento County Office of Emergency Services warned of dangerous heat this weekend.
On Friday, Death Valley recorded a temperature of 130 degrees Fahrenheit, just four degrees below its all-time high, 134 degrees the 10 July 1913, the highest temperature ever recorded on Earth, according to reports from the National Weather Service. Friday’s reading is considered preliminary and not yet validated, the weather service said, but what is not in doubt is the danger.
“Heed these warnings,” the weather service tweeted in capital letters. “Don’t put yourself or the first responders in danger this weekend!
Until a few years ago, the world heat record was considered to be 136 degrees, recorded in Libya on 13 September 1922. But the World Meteorological Organization conducted an investigation and invalidated that record in 2012 . One panel concluded that was due to an error in the temperature recording .
By Phil Helsel – NBC News