The record-shattering heat wave currently scorching a vast swath of the western United States would have been considered extreme even if it had happened in the hottest part of the summer.
But summer is only just starting, making this heat wave particularly extraordinary.
Some 40 million Americans have already experienced triple-digit temperatures this week. Salt Lake City, Casper, Wyo. and Billings, Mont., set all-time record high temperatures on Tuesday (June 15th), with temperatures soaring to 107, 101 and 108 degrees, respectively. And yesterday, Las Vegas reached 116 degrees. That's two degrees higher than the previous record for the date, and just one degree shy of the highest temperature ever recorded in the city.
Thursday morning brought no relief. "It's a balmy 92 degrees to start the day in #Vegas," wrote the local National Weather Service office on Twitter. "Intense heat continues through Sunday!"
“What we are seeing in the Western U.S. this week — I’d be comfortable calling it a mega-heat wave because it is breaking 100-plus-year records, and it is affecting a wide region,” said Mojtaba Sadegh, a Boise State University climate expert, quoted in a Washington Post story.
