Map Shows Cities Break Heat Records Amid ‘Extreme’ Temperatures

Several cities were scorched by daily heat records on Thursday amid “extreme” heat in the southwestern United States.

According to the National Weather Service (NWS), Las Vegas temperatures topped out at 111 degrees at 3:35 p.m. PDT, breaking the city’s previous record of 110 degrees set exactly 14 years ago, on June 6, 2010. Records were also set in Kingman, Arizona, which endured a high of 105 degrees Thursday.

Records were also set in Southern California, in Needles, which reached a high of 115, and in Death Valley, which skyrocketed to 122. The city of Bishop tied its daily high at 102.

The record-breaking temperatures arrived amid excessive-heat warnings across four states as the Southwest grapples with its first heat wave of the season. Thursday was forecast to be the hottest day of the week in several areas.

Six major metropolitan areas—Arizona’s Phoenix and Tucson; California’s Fresno and Bakersfield; Albuquerque, New Mexico; and El Paso, Texas—are under a “major” HeatRisk warning until Saturday, according to an announcement to X, formerly Twitter, by the NWS Weather Prediction Center. Las Vegas, however, was listed as facing “extreme” risk.

The NWS classifies major HeatRisk as impacting “anyone without effective cooling and/or adequate hydration.” It also could likely impact “some health systems, heat-sensitive industries and infrastructure.”

An extreme HeatRisk is a “level of rare and/or long-duration extreme heat with little to no overnight relief,” read the NWS announcement. Similar to the major level, an extreme risk also “affects anyone without effective cooling and/or adequate hydration” and has the chance of impacting health systems and heat-sensitive industries.

An excessive-heat warning was also extended until the end of Saturday for parts of Nye and Clark counties in Nevada by the NWS Thursday morning. Forecasters are advising that residents under the heat warnings stay hydrated and limit time outside in the sun from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The Las Vegas Fire Department said over X that cooling stations will been set up across the city through Friday, including at select public libraries, community centers and the Courtyard Homeless Resource Center.

Newsweek reached out to the department for additional information Thursday night.

Excessive high temperatures can pose several health risks, such as heat exhaustion and heatstroke. Heat exhaustion is more likely to impact older adults and those with high blood pressure. Possible symptoms can included headache, nausea, dizziness, thirst and high body temperature.

Heatstroke, which occurs when the body cannot regulate its temperature, can cause permanent damage and in some cases death. Symptoms can include confusion, loss of consciousness, profuse sweating and seizures.

The NWS said conditions could “return to hazardous levels” by the middle of next week in the Southern High Plains, which include parts of Texas and Oklahoma.