Phoenix breaks record for highest temperature on this date
Aug 20, 2019, 2:14 PM | Updated: 8:51 pm
(Facebook Photo/City of Phoenix Parks and Recreation Department)
PHOENIX – The mercury reached a record level for the date in Phoenix on Tuesday, and even higher temperatures are in the forecast.
It hit 113 degrees at 2:03 p.m., according to the National Weather Service, surpassing the record for Aug. 20 of 112 set in 1986.
Not really anything to brag about but here it is at 2:03 PM. #azwx pic.twitter.com/8RzcD8rB3c
— NWS Phoenix (@NWSPhoenix) August 20, 2019
The record for Aug. 21 of 110 degrees, set in 2007, was expected to fall, too.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if Phoenix warmed up to 115 degrees tomorrow,” ABC15 meteorologist Iris Hermosillo told KTAR News 92.3 FM on Tuesday morning.
That would match the year’s highest mark. The temperature has peaked at 115 degrees twice so far this summer, first on July 16 and again Aug. 5.
An excessive heat warning was in effect across the Valley through Wednesday.
“When it gets this hot, the risk for heat illness goes up,” Hermosillo said. “So we’re talking everything from heat exhaustion, to heat stroke, dehydration is a threat, and that’s why these excessive heat warnings are issued.”
It’s not just the Phoenix area seeing unseasonably high temperatures.
“Now we also see those excessive heat warnings extend all the way into Yavapai County,” Hermosillo said. “So the lower terrain, the lower elevations around, say, Prescott [are] under excessive heat warnings.
“Also the lower elevations of the Grand Canyon, under excessive heat warnings as temperatures will get dangerously hot there as well. Maybe not as hot as what we’ll feel here in Phoenix, but either way temperatures are soaring into the hundreds.”
KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Martha Maurer contributed to this report.