Severe heat wave June 2021 in the southwest -- PSP 123F

[Roger Smith]

Record heat has gripped the desert southwest region for several days now. On June 17th, these were some of the highs reported compared with previous records for the dates. 

LOCATION ________ HIGH JUNE 17 _______ RECORDS 

Death Valley CA ___ 128

Palm Springs CA ____ 123** ____________ 116 (1961)

Needles CA _________ 120 ______________ 120 (1917) tie

Imperial CA _________ 119 ______________ 115 (1971)

Phoenix AZ __________118 ______________ 114 (1896, 2015)

Thermal CA _________ 118 ______________ 114 (2008)

Barstow CA _________ 117 ______________ 110 (1961, 2015, 2017)

Yuma AZ ____________116 ______________ 115 (1896, 1981)

Las Vegas NV _______115 ______________ 114 (1940)

==============================================

=========================================

Synoptic situation _ 598 dm high (18z) near four corners (ne AZ etc) with 594-597 dm thickness generally over the region, surface heat low near PSP, 1003 mbs. The heat extends into parts of the Great Basin and central plains states. Highs at SLC of 107 on 15th have backed off slightly to high 90s past two days. High at DDC of 104F today tied record (1939,48). 

 

[Roger Smith]

Here's the update for today (Friday June 18th) ... a few degrees cooler at some locations, not every reading was a record today, but still blistering hot ...

 

LOCATION ________ HIGH JUNE 17 _______ RECORDS 

Death Valley CA _____ 124

Needles CA _________ 121 ______________ 119 (2017) 

Palm Springs CA ____ 119 ______________ 117 (2017)

Thermal CA _________ 119 ______________ 119 (2015) tie

Imperial CA _________ 118 ______________ 117 (1936, 2015)

Phoenix AZ __________117 ______________ 115 (1989, 2015)

Yuma AZ ____________114 ______________ 116 (1917, 1989, 2015)

Barstow CA _________ 113 ______________ 112 (1985)

Las Vegas NV _______113 ______________ 115 (1940) 

============================================

(119 at Blythe CA, not finding the daily records for them)

[Roger Smith]

Update for Saturday 19th ... a touch lower today and some records are a bit higher, so most stations now below record highs.

I haven't tracked them but stations further north in central CA have also been up around 110 degrees. 

 

 

LOCATION ________ HIGH JUNE 19 _______ RECORDS 

Death Valley CA _____ 125

Needles CA _________ 121 ______________ 123 (2017) 

Palm Springs CA ____ 119 ______________ 119 (2016, 2017) tie

Imperial CA _________ 117 ______________ 119 (2016)

Thermal CA _________ 116 ______________ 120 (2016) 

Phoenix AZ __________115 ______________ 118 (2016, 2017)

Yuma AZ ____________114 ______________ 120 (2016)

Barstow CA _________ 114 ______________ 115 (2017)

Las Vegas NV _______114 ______________ 114 (1940) tie

============================================

 

 

[brianc33710]

Seattle's forecast high for Monday (28 June) 108-110F/42-43C, is hotter than Birmingham's top temperature ever, 107F/41.5C. So far we've been stuck in a wet & below normal temps rut this summer. Hopefully the pattern changes sooner than later. I love the heat & humidity and not afraid to admit it!

[KC Storm]

Just crazy stuff. Even in these seemingly more extreme weather time.

[cheese007]

Going to be nearly 30 degrees warmer in Portland than Dallas today. Unheard of

[Chinook]

Crazy temps

The Dalles, OR: 117

Fort Lewis, WA: 110 (near Puget Sound)

Ephrata, WA and Walla Walla, WA: 112 (inland)

Lytton, BC: 115

24-hr max temps in Washington as of 5:00PM PDT Monday (Airports)

[raindancewx]

The stuff in the Northwest is more impressive than any heat wave in the Southwest during the Summer.  Phoenix had some record highs this June, but daily records. Not state or all time or anything like that. We have less physical capacity for highs to run above averages down here, so you end up with a lot of years when a few days end up relatively near the 122 all-time record in Phoenix. Hitting 110+ in Canada or the Northwest is way more impressive when you have less bunching and it takes everything going right (wrong) for a record to be broken so easily despite being 20-40 above average. I can say for Albuquerque, the all-time record high is 107 degrees. So from mid-April to mid-October, that means in 90 years of records it's never 35 above average for at least six months of the year, like some places in the Northwest were. The 107 is around 15 above average.

[nwohweather]

If I'm not mistaken Seattle broke their all time record by 8 degrees. That is insane

[Chinook]

After I checked NOWDATA on the NWS Seattle web site, Sea-Tac got to 108 degrees on Monday, breaking an all-time high of 103 set on July 29, 2009. If you read this image, it says that the 108 breaks the Seattle record by only 4 degrees, so I'm not really sure how there's a discrepancy.

[thunderbird12]

Seattle broke their all time high (previously set in 2009) by getting to 104 on Sunday, so technically Monday's 108 broke the all-time record (set the previous day) by 4 degrees. 

Pretty remarkable to see many sites (including Seattle/Portland) end up breaking previously established all time highs by 5-10 degrees, and in many cases eclipsing the previous all-time highs for multiple days in a row.