Hottest US City Phoenix Smashes Heat Streak Record

24/9/2024 6:24

        The desert city of Phoenix, Arizona, suffered a record 113 straight days with temperatures over 100 Fahrenheit (38 Celsius) this year, leading to hundreds of heat-related deaths and more acres burned by wildfire across the state, officials said.
        
        The city of 1.6 million residents, the largest in the Sonoran desert, had its hottest-ever summer, breaking the previous 2023 record by nearly two degrees, according to the National Weather Service.
        
        The 113-day streak reached last week smashed Phoenix's previous record of 76-straight-days over 100 F set in 1993.
        
        "It's very rare that we see, especially two summers in a row, two record breaking summers like we just experienced," said Matt Salerno, meteorologist at the National Weather Service Phoenix office.
        
        Heat has killed 256 people so far this year in Phoenix's Maricopa County and is the suspected cause of 393 other deaths, according to official data. That puts the county on track to surpass a record 645 heat deaths in 2023.