Arizonans cool off in the water in scorching heat

STORY: :: Arizonans try to stay cool as a ‘heat dome’ over

the Southwest pushes temperatures well above 100F

:: June 7, 2024

:: Phoenix, Arizona

“It’s a dry heat, it pretty much feels like you’re in an oven. Like if you set your oven to 120 degrees and then you just open it and stuck your head in it, that’s Arizona. It’s dry, it’s minimal humidity, you know, it’s really no escaping it.”

“At first, like you start to feel like kind of tired and then you’re sweating. And then eventually, like, you kind of start, I don’t know, like feeling a little sometimes queasy, depending on the type of person. But usually you kind of just like start feeling sick, and then eventually you’re on the floor if you don’t go and do something about it.”

“It’s really hot. Sometimes if you go outside, you feel like you can’t breathe. I, to me it’s unbearable.”

Some 31 million people from Northern California, south through Arizona and east into Texas, were under excessive heat warnings and heat advisories issued by the National Weather Service through Saturday.

On Wednesday (June 6), the high temperature reached 113F. Several people were seen being taken out on stretchers from a Trump event due to heat exhaustion after lining up for hours in extreme temperatures.

Phoenix was one of several cities in the Southwest region that experienced their hottest summers on record in 2023. Arizona’s capital city endured the high temperatures exceeding 110F for 55 straight days, a record. Last summer, 645 people died in the Phoenix area due to heat-related illnesses.