He said Idaho had its second-driest spring in the last 126 years.Īssociated Press journalists Olga R. Nick Nauslar, a meteorologist with the National Interagency Fire Center, told state officials this week that nearly 80% of Idaho is in drought and the rest will likely experience it in the coming months.

The dry weather was also being felt in Idaho, where authorities are preparing for what could be a challenging wildfire season. Furious winds have stoked the flames and forced the crash-landing of a firefighting helicopter.Īt least 14 new fires have been reported in Montana and Wyoming since Tuesday. In Montana, temperatures over 100 degrees (38 Celsius) have made it tougher to fight wildfires that have exploded in size, triggering evacuations and destroying an undetermined number of homes. But a possible respite was in sight with showers and thunderstorms expected in parts of the state. New Mexico also experienced more record-breaking highs. We’re seeing all-time records fall,” Salmen said. The region is expected to remain at 113 degrees (45 C) or hotter through Sunday, National Weather Service meteorologist John Salmen said, and still could top the all-time local high of 117 degrees (47 Celsius), set June 20, 2017. In Nevada, Las Vegas hit 116 degrees (46.6 Celsius), breaking the record of 114 degrees (45.5 Celsius) for the date set during a record hot spell on June 16, 1940. Hamburg said it was the first time she had experienced Colorado’s “dry heat,” adding that it’s much easier to manage than the humid heat common in the Midwest. “I didn’t pack any pants, didn’t pack any T-shirts. “I rented this (paddleboard) a week ago knowing that it would be like 100 degrees,” the 24-year-old visiting from Indianapolis said. The weather service issued an excessive heat warning for parts of western Colorado, most of which is experiencing extreme drought conditions.īekka Hamburg was trying to beat the heat by paddle-boarding on a lake just west of downtown Denver on Wednesday. “We’re anticipating we’ll see more people tomorrow when a temperature of 108 degrees is forecast,” Craft said.Įlsewhere in the West, triple-digit heat was forecast in Denver, which saw a record high of 101 degrees (38 Celsius) Tuesday. Kathleen Craft, shelter coordinator for the city of Livermore, California, said temperatures had reached 99 degrees (37 Celsius) shortly after midday but only one woman had shown up at the city's cooling center. A few cooling centers were open but mostly empty by the afternoon. Higher temperatures also were felt in the normally temperate San Francisco Bay Area. CEO Elliot Mainzer said the grid was stable and there was no expectation of rotating power outages, but that could change as temperatures spike in the coming days. It asks people to set thermostats to 78 degrees or higher, turn off unnecessary lights and avoid using major appliances. The California Independent System Operator issued the alert to help relieve stress on the grid.

In California, the operator of the state's power grid is asking residents to voluntarily conserve power for a few hours Thursday evening as record-breaking heat blankets the West this week. Several blocks away, outdoor misters spritzed diners on restaurant patios. The dome of high pressure spread over the West the week before the official start of summer, causing unusually hot days and warm evenings.Įxpecting crowds trying to cool off, a half dozen lifeguards in wide-brimmed straw hats and red T-shirts over swimsuits waited for people to arrive at a city pool in downtown Phoenix that features a water slide and several fountains. Palm Springs hit a high of 120 degrees on Tuesday, But there was no real relief expected from the excessive heat warning in effect until at least Sunday.

“We could have two, three, four, five of these heat waves before the end of the summer.”Ī few clouds were holding the temperatures down slightly in the desert region of southwest Arizona and southeast California. “Heat waves are getting worse in the West because the soil is so dry” from the region's megadrought, said Park Williams, a University of California, Los Angeles, climate and fire scientist who has calculated that soil in the western half of the nation is the driest it has been since 1895.

Los angeles weather in june 2021