Heat Takes a Backseat to Cooler Weather in the Desert Southwest

After months of relentless heat, the Desert Southwest is finally getting a break. The temperatures have cooled dramatically heading into the weekend. Just how dramatic is the temperature change? Read on for all of the details.

Record-Breaking Summer and Fall for Phoenix and Beyond

There is no doubt that it has been exceptionally hot in Phoenix and beyond over the past few months. Even for a part of the country that is used to the searing heat, the temperatures since last summer have been exceptionally hot. Phoenix saw a number of records fall over the last several weeks.

For instance, the Valley of the Sun set new daily high records for three straight weeks between the dates September 23 and October 14. The last record for this milestone dates back to 1936 when Burlington, Iowa broke a new record high every day for two weeks.

The heat has taken its toll on Phoenix and its suburbs. The hospitals in the metro area were frequently overrun with patients needing treatment for heat-related illnesses. Hospital burn units also saw a spike in contact heat injuries.

Phoenix was not the only city out West that was dealing with record high heat this year. A late summer heat wave sent the mercury soaring to the third-highest daily temperature ever on September 6.

Moving into the northern part of the state of California, the tourist hot spot of Napa eclipsed the century mark for five of the first seven days of October. Temperatures typically hover in the low 80s in early October in this part of Northern California.

Over 500 daily top temperature reading records were broken through late September in the western U.S. Exemplifying this record heat was the fact that 15 total weather stations had never recorded higher readings during the month of September. For instance, the Phoenix suburb of Tempe notched a high of 115 degrees at one point during the month.

The desert resort town of Palm Springs, California reached a high of 117 degrees on October 1. This reading was a new high temperature record for all of October across the entire country. That same day saw the mercury soar to 114 degrees in Death Valley, California, also good for a new monthly record for this location. The fall heat for Death Valley was simply a continuation of the hottest summer on record for the desert terrain.