You might’ve thought that we had passed from summer into pumpkin spice latté season with brooding moments spent at the window watching rain batter the golden-leafed trees. Not yet! Mother Nature says we have to sweat a little more first. In fact, many cities are going to face triple-digit temps, according to Forbes. This last (we hope!) heat wave of summer may even break records, says the National Weather Service in an urgent “excessive heat warning” that will be in effect from noon on Thursday to 10pm Friday night Pacific Daylight Time. The weather service warning is long and covers many geographical areas if you scroll down through it.
Some of the hottest areas in this warning include the American Southwest and southwest California. For a few examples, in Las Vegas, the dangerous time is from 11am PDT this morning to 8pm PDT on Friday with highs ranging from 104 to 108 for elevations less than 3,500 feet. In Phoenix, the worst time will be from 11am to 8pm MST on Thursday, with afternoon temperatures expected to range from 101 to 111. In Los Angeles (and other California cities like San Luis Obispo and Pasadena), temperatures can reach 95 to 110 during the timeframe of 11am Wednesday to 8pm Friday PDT, with the worst of it happening Thursday and Friday. Unfortunately, things in SoCal won’t really cool down at night as temperatures do in other regions.
The highest temp we saw on the National Weather Service’s warning was 116-120 at Furnace Creek in Death Valley National Park—you know, earning its name.
To minimize the impact of this intense heat, the weather service says to drink a lot of fluids, hang out in air conditioning, stay out of the sun and check up on relatives and neighbors. Never leave children or pets in an unattended car—temperatures that can kill can be reached in minutes inside the small space.