Temperatures will rise over the southwestern United States into this weekend. In many parts of the interior, these will be some of the warmest days of the year so far. The area will also be more likely to have wildfires in the spring because of the string of hot, dry days.
“A strong area of high pressure will bring unusual warmth for this time of year for the rest of this week and this weekend,” AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Heather Zehr said, “The high looks to be the strongest now into Friday, then weakens a bit this weekend as it slides eastward.”
At its peak, temperatures will be 10 to 20 degrees Fahrenheit higher than normal, and records will be broken. Temperatures can rise to 10 degrees or more above the real temperature during the day when April sunshine is added in, which is the same as August sunshine.
“Phoenix is likely to experience its first 100 F or higher reading of the year on Thursday,” he said. “Friday and Saturday may also top 100.”
May 2 at Phoenix is the date that most of the first 100 have chosen. There was a date on March 26, 1988.
If you’re an outdoor enthusiast going into the wilderness in the next week or so, make sure you bring a lot of water with you. The sun and heat in remote places can be very dangerous.
In California, the middle of the state will get very hot, but the coast will stay pretty cool thanks to sea breezes. Each morning, there may be some short-lived fog along and near the coast.
“There is a chance an eddy forms just offshore of Southern California, which is a common phenomenon in June,” he said.
The flow going anticlockwise around the eddy can send cool, damp air with clouds and drizzle towards the beaches in Southern California and even the I-5 region. “If that eddy forms, coastal areas could be cloudy, drizzly and chilly for days, just like it often occurs in June,” Zehr said.
Over the next few days, the heat will start to move farther to the east over the Southwest.
As a result, temperatures should rise first in the deserts of California, then in the deserts of Nevada and Arizona as the weekend goes on. It will get really hot in cities like Denver, and it might even break records.
