Arizona-style Heat Wave

[Silas_Sancona]

After what has been one of the nicest stretches of Spring weather, by Arizona standards, looks like we are in for our first 5-7 day stretch of some serious heat here in the Desert and parts of CA. While reaching the 100F mark locally usually has happened by mid May, extensive highs in the 110+ range is a bit ahead of schedule. In any event, if you are in town this weekend, of just out, please take the usual precautions to stay Hydrated and out of the Hospital. Also, keep the little ones..and furry four-leggeds out of the sun and out of the car.

According to Accuweather, it looks like we could reach/ exceed 115-117F either on Friday or Saturday( possibly both days.. and maybe also on Sunday) here in Chandler. Phoenix proper is usually a degree or two warmer. Lows may not drop below the low 80's. In any event, an Excessive Heat Warning is in effect from Friday until, at least, Monday.

For all our Palm loving weather geeks out there, feel free to post your highs/lows.

[Palm crazy]

Its been a fantastic spring this year with temps 10-25F degrees above normal here in WA. Were having a few days in the 70’s (nice) and then back into the low 90’s this weekend and then back to upper 70’s low 80’s. The hot part of the state Eastern WA will be in the 100’s but thats in the desert part of the state. Last year in late May we had 92 and the desert part was 114F. That was the warmest of the year for them, LOL! 

[NorCalKing]

101f yesterday. 95f atm (4:30pm local).

Looks like the 90's are hanging around for a while.

[chinandega81]

It was 106 here today, low of 69. Humid in the early AM at sunrise with a southest breeze off the Sea of Cortez. Tomorrow is supposed to be 110, then 113, 115....I am hopeful that the coolish nights and brief time frame of the intense heat is enough to help them not burn. I was watering today when I got home from work and it was very pleasant once the sun set. AMs are still quite cool. Even if lows are in the low 80s, it seems like it will just be for a day or two. It would be great if we could get back to below normal temps or at least normal and sustain that until monsoon season and higher humidity. So far, no sunscaled or sunburn on any of my plants.

[Silas_Sancona]

Official reading of 108F around 4pm today here though numerous W.U. stations around Chandler, Gilbert ..and other spots around the Valley, exceeded 110F. Hottest i could find was a 115F reading off a station south of me somewhere in Sun Lakes. Fair amount of smoke in the air around sunset as we saw lots of drift from on going fires north and east of town. Currently in the 85-95F range around town. Stay cool out there!

[Danilopez89]

Friday morning 10:10am - 102°F and rising. Some places nearby in the Palm Springs area are reading 110°F already. 

Nice and hot. Just how I like it.

[chinandega81]

Here in the Imperial Valley it's also in the low 100s as of 10AM. Yesterday was about 115...

 

When I got home, one of my bougainvilleas on the west side of a wooden fence was wilting. I watered immediately and placed a giant recycle garbage can in front to block the PM sun today. Every thing else looked fine.

 

It was nice this AM early...but when this kind of heat starts to stick around long term is when I notice the plants go into a hibernation mode.

The new leaves on my Ficus rustica started to burn yesterday as well.

 

My Mango is doing great under the shade cloth, a row of oleanders in front and cardboard to reflect the reflected heat.

New banana leafs are also starting to show sunscalding.

 

On a positive note, the bucidas bucera (Shady Lady/Black olive tree from Florida) is putting on new growth and is happier than ever.

 

My royal palms and bismarks also are growing nicely.

Do you know if Hibisucus and Ixora planted on the east side of a house will take this heat? They were just planted a week ago, well watered daily and get shade after 1230.

 

Good luck to all the other desert gardeners...can't wait to have my own oasis vs this desert patch I am trying to tame now!

[Silas_Sancona]

27 minutes ago, Danilopez89 said:

Friday morning 10:10am - 102°F and rising. Some places nearby in the Palm Springs area are reading 110°F already. 

Nice and hot. Just how I like it.

Same here.. Many Valley W.U. stations currently close to 100F, with several others over 105.  One station, Crestview at Fountain Hills, is already at 116F.. Pretty sure it is a false reading, though a few others around town are now at/topping 110-112F.

While just a forecast,  Latest weekly AccuWeather Long Range update shows some signs of increasing monsoonal moisture later on this month, into early in July.

[Danilopez89]

Can't wait till I get home and water the heck out of my garden while drinking a cold cervesa. Many cervesas 

[chinandega81]

OK I just got home from work and checked the yard. It's 114 and the sun is still shining on about half of everything. Here is my report:

 

Plumeria's flowers are all wilted. It's on the east side and gets shade after 12:30.

All banana plants get shade as of 2 PM. Bottom, shaded leafs are fried, they look like we just had a freeze. They are crispy and brown. They were green this AM and I watered well yesterday PM.

Bougainvillea are all wilting...still in full sun at this time...soil under mulch is wet from watering yesterday.

Hibiscus and Ixora on the east side are fine and look great.

Royal Palms and Poincianas look totally fine, as does the Bismarckia.

 

Mango under shade cloth is fine as well.

 

How do your yards look and how hot did it get for you? I think the intense sun with the heat "all of a sudden" is what did in some plants. We had a mild spring up until now and it went straight to the hottest summer temps over the span of a few days.

[Silas_Sancona]

A very HOT afternoon.. and this is just the start. Most stations around town easily reached 111F + with many in the 115-118F range. While not official, a few neighborhood stations breached 120, with the one in the picture, topping 123F. Phoenix Sky Harbor officially broke a record with today's high of 113F.. Possibly 116F tomorrow, which not only would be another record, but mark the earliest date temps of +115F have occurred.

** interesting side note, the hottest official high in Phoenix history is 122F recorded in late June, 1990.




Strictly for curiosity, i took a quick soil reading in a hot part of the backyard around 3:00PM. Pretty crazy. Using the same Thermometer, the air temp approx. 5' off the ground came in at 120F.


As for the garden, Seeing some burn and sun scald on a few things. Been trying to apply light amounts of water between soakings after the sun has set to help cool the soil and foliage after allowing time for any sun heated water to empty through the hose.
 

[NorCalKing]

Topped out at 104F here a little earlier today.

[chinandega81]

Ficus rustica had all of its new growth burnt even though it doesnt appear so in the picutre. It has a shade cloth on Its west side.

The bananas get pm shade from 1PM on.

Schefflera is shaded and still burnt like a crisp.

On a happy note the Royal Palms are growing well as are the Delonix regia.

Anyone else have damage? Or are we waiting for the heat wave to end to evaluate? This was the first sign of damage for me at all this season.

[chinandega81]

Btw Its already 97at 9am according to the National Weather Service. Today will be a VERY rough day for the plants.

[Silas_Sancona]

After two more days of extreme, record breaking heat, the damage is done.

While Phoenix didn't reach 115F today, 113 is still a record. Mirroring yesterday, numerous spots among neighborhood weather stations throughout the Valley easily pushed the upper 100-teens/ with some of the hotter spots reaching 120-122F once again. Unlike yesterday, i didn't note any stations topping the two spots that hit 123F yesterday.

As mentioned, after 3 days, there is a fair amount of  heat damage scattered around the garden including several of the Plumeria which finally suffered leaf burn. Oddly, i also have two seedling Queens Crepe Myrtle in 1 gals that look flawless and are also sitting on the cement pad where the most of the Plumeria are currently situated.

Looks like one more day of possible 109-114F heat before we start a cool down ..er, back down to around the 100-106F range. The 18Z run of the GFS also offers hints of some increasing moisture from the south/ South east down the road. No rain here but maybe some High clouds/ debris clouds from dissipating storms over the mountains east/south of the Valley.

Bench, and Shade cover construction starts later this week.

[bubba]

Silas,

If I am not mistaken, you are a traveler. Were you not in Sarasota/Bradenton, Florida over this winter?

 I personally enjoy the Phoenix/La Quinta Desert areas during the summer. As a Floridian,  I have  always liked the dry heat  compared to the suffering of 95° F. with  relative humidity and approximately the same figure. My wife and our youngest  spent time in Phoenix two summers ago and traveled to La Quinta and  stayed for several days before heading to the coast. Phoenix had high temperatures  in the 110° F. range  with relative humidity around 10%. While toasty,  it was more enjoyable than 95 at 95 here in South Florida.  The ocean breeze does mitigate that humidity a bit.

La Quinta  broke out the firecrackers. One day it hit 113° F. with  35% relative humidity. They  attributed it to a tropical wave streaming from the Gulf of Cortez. It was very similar to 95 with 95 in South Florida but a touch up on the stimp meter.

How would you compare your winter  experience in Sarasota/ Bradenton to  Phoenix/La Quinta winter? Many years ago I remember  staying with friends who had a house on Camelback Mountain.  We were swimming in the pool and got out and it felt cold. I looked at the thermometer and it was 95 F. Teeth were chattering.

 

 

 

 

[Silas_Sancona]

1 hour ago, bubba said:

Silas,

If I am not mistaken, you are a traveler. Were you not in Sarasota/Bradenton, Florida over this winter?

 I personally enjoy the Phoenix/La Quinta Desert areas during the summer. As a Floridian,  I have  always liked the dry heat  compared to the suffering of 95° F. with  relative humidity and approximately the same figure. My wife and our youngest  spent time in Phoenix two summers ago and traveled to La Quinta and  stayed for several days before heading to the coast. Phoenix had high temperatures  in the 110° F. range  with relative humidity around 10%. While toasty,  it was more enjoyable than 95 at 95 here in South Florida.  The ocean breeze does mitigate that humidity a bit.

La Quinta  broke out the firecrackers. One day it hit 113° F. with  35% relative humidity. They  attributed it to a tropical wave streaming from the Gulf of Cortez. It was very similar to 95 with 95 in South Florida but a touch up on the stimp meter.

How would you compare your winter  experience in Sarasota/ Bradenton to  Phoenix/La Quinta winter? Many years ago I remember  staying with friends who had a house on Camelback Mountain.  We were swimming in the pool and got out and it felt cold. I looked at the thermometer and it was 95 F. Teeth were chattering.

 

 

 

 

 Lol, Indeed you are correct.

We left Bradenton in March.

As far as the heat.. your observations are bulls- eye on target. While the extreme heat we had over the weekend was hot, i can't imagine throwing the usual 60-80% humidity/ dew point so typical to Florida this time of year, on top of the actual highs we had. Humidity the entire weekend rarely exceeded 10-15% at any given time here during this heat wave. Today we stayed right around 105-7F and the difference was easily felt. That being said, there were a few times it literally felt like you were standing in front of a blast furnace both Saturday and Sunday when the Max temps for this event peaked out.

The biggest thing i have noticed here, especially since i am outside most days, is while the drier heat makes it easier to get dehydrated, when you sweat, you actually cool off a bit. I remember last summer at work back in Sarasota never really being able to cool off, no matter how much water i had with me.. As i had explained to a co-worker recently, the extra humidity + the actual temp back in Florida during the summer can feel as though someone has wrapped you in a heavy fur blanket, or layers wet, hot of insulation, especially on those days we didn't see any afternoon storms.

As for the Winter, we'll see.. March and April were pleasant/warm as anticipated and it seemed that any days we had where temps fell into the 40's, the cold was brief. By noon, it was very pleasant/ warm out. From what i have been told, most frosts or freezes we might have here also follow the same "brief" logic. We'll see how true or false that is next winter.

-Nathan

[Silas_Sancona]

After several days of "cooler" weather, including the brief "taste" of the Monsoon that followed the heat.. Get ready for what could be one of the hottest stretches of weather Phoenix and the entire region has seen in possibly 20 years.. If in fact the higher-end model projections, which have been un-wavering in their suggestions for this period, come out winning the forecast race, Phoenix may come within a degree of it's hottest temperature ever recorded ( 122F in late June of 1990 ) or break it. Death Valley may also challenge it's record reading of 134F. 

Looking at the maps, an Excessive Heat Warning covers all of the lower elevations of Arizona, and all of South/ southeast. CA. away from the immediate coast. Unlike the last round, it is also looking like the 110Fs will stick around through at least Thursday with lows not dropping below the lower/mid 80s. ( locally, at least) Wouldn't be surprised to see Downtown Phoenix not fall below 90-92F both Sunday and Monday. Additionally, the Forecast introduces increased Dew Points sometime after Monday as Monsoonal moisture creeps north from Mexico. GFS is also hinting at another round of monsoon-related activity popping up over the state/ S.E. CA Deserts after roughly 250 hours (per the 12z run)

If traveling into town, please stay hydrated. Hike, bike, or Golf in the morning. Keep an eye on the Airports... It is quite possible that Sky Harbor may see flight delays between Sunday and Tuesday due to the heat.

 

[Brett in Mission Viejo]

I was in Phoenix on June 26, 1990, on a business trip to Honeywell Dear Valley when they hit 122F and closed the airport. The primary reason they closed the airport was because most of the transport airplane's approved flight manuals did not have take-off/landing performance charts where the temperatures went that high, so they would be operating outside of their approved flight envelopes. The operators eventually worked with the aircraft manufacturers and the FAA to expand the charts, so hopefully, the airport won't close on Monday if it gets hot, unless it is for other reasons. Ironically, I will be on another business trip to Honeywell, Dear Valley on Monday, and flying into Sky Harbor around 2pm.

[chinandega81]

Well, here we go again. It's 114 at 1PM. How high will it go today. If this were like the last round of two or three days it would be one thing, but temps only dropping to 112 late next week isn't much relief for the plants.

 

I have mulched everything that burned last heat wave, but some things that were mulched still had sunscalding so I'm not sure if this will help. I have been watering, hopefully not too much. I doubled down on the shade cloth on a few plants and have done Deep watering as well. There are also a few strategically placed "objects" blocking the west sun from a few plants that get full exposure.

 

Fingers crossed....

[Silas_Sancona]

As anticipated, we broke more records today. Officially, Phoenix topped 118F but widespread readings ranging from 120 to 128F were fairly common throughout the valley via neighborhood W.U. stations. Tucson and Yuma also shattered long standing records as well. A station id referenced in a past post here topped the 130F mark right around 3PM. Other stations around this side of the Valley came in between 124-128F  Many areas are still in the 107-110+ atm. With the exception of some outlaying areas, not expecting lows to fall out of the 80's for most spots tonight.

Damage around the yard seems far less compared to what the last heat wave brought. Still, some of the Plumeria that escaped the last beat down got scorched this time around.

Records were also set for the overall strength of the High Pressure area sitting overhead, as well as temperatures at 850dm which topped out at 30C, Quite impressive for so early in the season. Models continue showing increasing levels of moisture returning north/northwest out of Mexico into AZ and Southern CA this coming week/ into next week. Might see some Dust Storm threats from dying storms in the Mountains but no signs of rainfall here just yet.. That might change though later on. Temps look to stay hot but slide back a bit from what we saw today/will see tomorrow.  Models also continue trending toward expanding the "heat dome" over all of CA toward the start of July.

Sadly, 4 lives were lost around the state this weekend due to the heat. A stark reminder of how dangerous hiking can be this time of year, and how important it is to know your limits outdoors and stay hydrated.. No matter how healthy or in shape you might be.

 

[Pando]

130F.... Holy crap.

Here's the hottest ever temperatures recorded in every state (134F was in Death Valley on July 10, 1913):

https://weather.com/news/climate/news/hottest-temperature-recorded-50-states

[nachocarl]

Driving through Yuma yesterday, it was indeed hot.

 

[Silas_Sancona]

11 hours ago, Pando said:

130F.... Holy crap.

Here's the hottest ever temperatures recorded in every state (134F was in Death Valley on July 10, 1913):

https://weather.com/news/climate/news/hottest-temperature-recorded-50-states

Pando.. Holy crap indeed! While this particular WX station was the only one to hit 130, many others came close.  Highs between 123 and 128F were quite common. It always surprises me that the weather station Phoenix uses to record the official temps ( at the Airport) seems to be a couple degrees cooler than other stations both just north east of the Airport, and a couple others just to the south west. One station a couple miles away was reading 123 when the station at the Airport registered 118F.

More records fell today both locally and across the region. Noteworthy was the 122F registered in Palm Springs and the slew of records that fell across the L.A. basin per what i had read via Weather West's twitter feed, and the NOAA. Phoenix also set a record low of 90F this morning and may do so again tomorrow. While the heat continues, one.. errie difference today was a rapid surge of moisture that started working into the valley from the east around 5pm. A large, ongoing fire northeast of the valley exploded in size overnight and scattered a huge plume of smoke over head making for a very dramatic sunset. There is also a slight chance we might see "dry" thunderstorms reach the area either tonight or tomorrow. 109-114'ish heat stays put.

If a single picture can speak for the Summer Solstice and the heat, let alone how spectacular the skies can be here in the Desert, this is a pretty dramatic way to open the season.

Stay cool out there...





 

[Danilopez89]

On Mon Jun 20 2016 20:23:40 GMT-0700, Silas_Sancona said:

Pando.. Holy crap indeed! While this particular WX station was the only one to hit 130, many others came close.  Highs between 123 and 128F were quite common. It always surprises me that the weather station Phoenix uses to record the official temps ( at the Airport) seems to be a couple degrees cooler than other stations both just north east of the Airport, and a couple others just to the south west. One station a couple miles away was reading 123 when the station at the Airport registered 118F.

More records fell today both locally and across the region. Noteworthy was the 122F registered in Palm Springs and the slew of records that fell across the L.A. basin per what i had read via Weather West's twitter feed, and the NOAA. Phoenix also set a record low of 90F this morning and may do so again tomorrow. While the heat continues, one.. errie difference today was a rapid surge of moisture that started working into the valley from the east around 5pm. A large, ongoing fire northeast of the valley exploded in size overnight and scattered a huge plume of smoke over head making for a very dramatic sunset. There is also a slight chance we might see "dry" thunderstorms reach the area either tonight or tomorrow. 109-114'ish heat stays put.

If a single picture can speak for the Summer Solstice and the heat, let alone how spectacular the skies can be here in the Desert, this is a pretty dramatic way to open the season.

Stay cool out there...





 

Cool pic! 

I saw this while checking the mail the other day but I didn't have my cell phone to take some pics. 

[Las Palmas Norte]

Well ... we've had a big cool down up in the PNW. 62°F / 16°C and rain forecast for tomorrow. If only there was a way to shift some of the systems around and create a balance ...

Cheers, Barrie.

 

P.S. Crazy that the all time high temps map shows higher temps for Oregon and Washington, than the Gulf States !

Edited June 22, 2016 by Las Palmas Norte