PHOENIX — A dangerous heatwave threatened much of the southwest on Saturday with potentially fatal temperatures in the triple digits as some refrigeration centers extended hours and emergency rooms prepared to treat more people with heat-related illnesses.
“Near record temperatures are expected this weekend!” National Weather Service in Phoenix warned in a tweet advising people to follow his heat protection tips, like drinking plenty of water and checking on family members and neighbors.
“Don’t be a statistic!” The Tucson Weather Service said extreme heat could be deadly. “It CAN happen to YOU!”
About 200 hydration stations that distribute bottled water and cooling centers that allow thousands of people to rest in air-conditioned spaces opened Saturday in public spaces like libraries, churches and businesses in the Phoenix area.
Charles Sanders spent Friday afternoon with his Chihuahua mix Babygirl at the air-conditioned Justa Center, which provides daytime services for the elderly homeless in downtown Phoenix. It also doubles as a drinking station and hands out free bottled water.
Due to financial and staffing constraints, the center can only stay open until 5:30 p.m., so Sanders, a 59-year-old wheelchair user, spent the sweltering nights with his pet in a run-down tent behind the building.
“I’ve been here four summers now and it’s the worst so far,” said Sanders, a former welder originally from Denver.
Phoenix City Chief Heat Officer David Hondula said Friday that health risks have caused some centers to extend hours, which are sometimes shortened due to limited volunteer numbers and funding.
“This weekend is going to be some of the worst and hottest conditions we’ve seen,” Hondula said.
He said only one location, the Brian Garcia Welcome Center for the homeless in downtown Phoenix, is scheduled to be open 24 hours a day, directing people to overnight shelters and other air-conditioned spaces. During particularly hot spells in recent years, the Phoenix Convention Center opened as a nighttime cool-down center, but Hondula said he hadn’t heard about the possibility this year.
Stacy Championan advocate for the homeless in Phoenix, took to Twitter this week to criticize the lack of nighttime cold storage for the homeless, saying they would be “unlucky” if they didn’t have somewhere to go.
In Las Vegas, Casinos provided a respite from the heat for many. Air-conditioned libraries, police department lobbies, and other locations from Texas to California should be open to the public to provide relief for at least part of the day.
In Albuquerque, New Mexico’s largest city, the wading pools are open for extended periods and many public pools offer free entry. In Boise, Idaho, churches and other nonprofit groups provided water, sunscreen, and shelter.
Emergency doctors in Las Vegas have been treating more people for heat illness as this weekend’s heatwave threatened to shatter the city’s record high of 117 degrees Fahrenheit (47.2 degrees Celsius).
dr Ashkan Morim, who works in the emergency room at Dignity Health Siena Hospital in suburban Henderson, Nevada, spoke on Friday about this week’s treatment of tourists who had been drinking too long by the pool and were severely dehydrated, and one stranded hikers who needed liters of liquid to regain their strength.
Around 110,000 people, or about a third of Americans, were under extreme heat alerts, watches and alerts Saturday as the blistering heat wave was predicted to worsen this weekend in Nevada, Arizona and California. Temperatures in some desert areas were predicted to rise above 48.8 degrees Celsius during the day and stay above 32.2 degrees Celsius overnight.
The hot, dry conditions set off a spark a series of flames in Southern California, where firefighters on Saturday were battling three separate bushfires that broke out on Friday afternoon amid the hottest weather of the year so far. The fires are mostly in rural areas of Riverside County southeast of Los Angeles.
Phoenix recorded temperatures of 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43.3 degrees Celsius) or higher for the 16th straight day in the city Saturday, hitting that mark before noon and on track to surpass the longest recorded hot spell . The record is 18 days, recorded in 1974.
The heat was expected to continue into the next week.
Regional health authorities in Las Vegas have introduced a new one Database Thursday to report “heat-related” and “heat-related” deaths in the city and surrounding Clark County from April through October.
According to the Southern Nevada Health District, seven people have died since April 11, and a total of 152 deaths over the past year have been determined to be heat-related.
Maricopa County in Arizona, home of Phoenix, reported This week we announced that there have been 12 confirmed heat-related deaths so far this year since April, half of them homeless people. Another 55 deaths are being investigated.
There was 425 confirmed Maricopa County had heat-related deaths last year, with more than half occurring in July and 80% outdoors.
Closer to the Pacific coast, temperatures were less severe but still made for sweaty days at the Los Angeles-area picket lines, where actors and screenwriters joined Strikes against producers.
In Sacramento, the California State Fair began with organizers canceling scheduled horse races due to animal safety concerns. Pet owners in the Southwest have been urged to keep their animals indoors for the most part.
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Associated Press reporter Julie Watson in San Diego. Ken Ritter in Las Vegas, John Antczak in Los Angeles, and Susan Montoya in Albuquerque, New Mexico contributed to this report.
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