Phoenix records its hottest summer on record

PHOENIX (AZFamily) — If you think it’s been a hot summer, you’re not wrong. Phoenix just had its hottest summer ever on record.

The city had its hottest summer on record last year, and temperatures this year officially surpassed that. What could surprise many people is that it wasn’t only the hottest summer in Phoenix but also for areas like Flagstaff, Payson and Show Low.

Phoenix has had its hottest five summers in the last 11 years. Records from the National Weather Service go back nearly 130 years.

The average temperature in Phoenix for June, July and August was 98.9 degrees Fahrenheit, nearly two degrees warmer than the previous record set last year.

“That is fairly significant because you don’t see records fall that quickly and by that much,” said Mark O’Malley, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Phoenix.

It wasn’t only exceptionally hot for just Arizona.

“This was an entire region that was much warmer than normal this summer,” O’Malley said.

O’Malley says the weather pattern at fault really cranked up the heat across the southwest.

“We had a large area of high pressure sit right over the area, so it gave us the heat and also gave us not that much thunderstorm activity.”

The record did not come as much of a surprise to O’Malley.

“We have been warming in the southwest every summer for the past 30 years so to see a top five or top 10 warmest summer is not unusual now,” he said.

Phoenix’s hottest summer day was 118 degrees, recorded twice in July. The city is on pace to likely beat another record this week for the number of days with temperatures 110 degrees or higher. The previous record was 55 days just last year.

“We want people not to let their guard down,” O’Malley said. “If you need to be outside working please drink plenty of water and take as many breaks as you can in air conditioning.”

O’Malley says the fall outlook for Arizona shows warmer-than-average temperatures for the next couple of months but that typically, in Phoenix, 100-degree temperatures last through the middle of October.

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