The heat has been unrelenting through the Southwest. For the past 10 days, the temperature has exceeded 110 degrees in places like Phoenix, Arizona, and Palm Springs, California. In addition, the average high in Phoenix for the entire month has been over 110 degrees. Some might say the dry desert heat is not so bad. I don't buy that. When the temperature reaches 110 or higher, that's awful, and you bake no matter what the humidity is. The intense heat has already claimed the lives of several people. The desert roast will continue Thursday and Friday with the only hope of any cooling coming from stray thunderstorms.
This graphic accentuates how hot it has been across the Southwest. Certainly, the place not to be is Death Valley, California, where the temperature has exceeded 125 degrees six days in a row. Death Valley holds the record for the highest temperature ever observed in the United States which was 134 degrees. Tuesday's high of 129 was only 5 degrees shy of that all-time record. For that matter, the world record has been within shouting distance. The hottest ever on the planet was 136 degrees in Libya.