A deadly heat wave continued to scorch the Southwest Monday with more record highs likely in Arizona, Nevada, Utah and California. Excessive heat warnings remained in effect Monday in portions of the four states.
Record-breaking heat across Arizona shattered temperature records Sunday and claimed at least four lives on hiking trails in and around Phoenix and Tucson over the weekend, the Arizona Republic reported.
Weather forecasters predicted little relief Monday, especially in western Arizona.
Temperatures in Phoenix, Flagstaff, Tucson and Yuma broke daily records Sunday afternoon, according to the National Weather Service. Phoenix reached 118 degrees, Tucson 115 degrees, Flagstaff 93 degrees and Yuma soared to 120 degrees, that city's fourth-hottest day on record.
In California on Sunday, temperatures climbed to 113 degrees in San Bernardino, Calif., with Burbank, Calif., at 109 degrees. Indio, Calif., was 120 degrees on Sunday, WeatherBug reported.
Death Valley should hit 124 degrees Monday afternoon, the National Weather Service said, which is still 10 degrees below its all-time (and world record) high of 134 degrees.
Widespread triple-digit high temperatures are expected to occur Monday in the Los Angeles area, with potential record breaking heat, the weather service reported.
The high-pressure area responsible for the intense heat will begin to retreat into the Southern Plains by midweek, allowing the searing heatwave to loosen its grip on the Southwest, according to a forecast from WeatherBug.
Firefighters also continued to battle raging wildfires in eight states throughout the region over the weekend. "The exceptionally hot and dry weather will continue to keep the fire threat elevated," AccuWeather meteorologist Carl Erickson said.
So far this year, 1.9 million acres have burned in wildfires across the nation, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. That's more than 200,000 acres above average and the most as of this date since 2011.
It's an area that's larger than the state of Delaware.
Contributing: The Arizona Republic; The Desert Sun
