Las Vegas’ 115-plus heat record reaches sixth straight day with 118

LAS VEGAS – Las Vegas is melting through its record sixth consecutive day of highs above 115 degrees on Thursday, a prolonged stretch of heat that appears to be nearing its end.

Reid International Airport’s official thermometer reached 115 at 12:51 p.m., making it the record sixth day with a reading of 115 or higher.

The Thursday morning low was 93, a degree lower than the Wednesday low of 94. The mercury reached 100 at 7:35 a.m. The National Weather Service was predicting a high of 118.

Just after 2 p.m., the airport showed a high of 117, surpassing the record for July 11 of 116, set in 1959.

“The extra cloud cover today will play a role,” meteorologist Morgan Stessman said.

A layer of clouds at about 12,000 feet developed shortly after noon, and the high temperature fluctuated between 115 and 117 most of the afternoon.

But, about 3:50 p.m., the high reached 118.

Thursday is the sixth straight day of a new daily high temperature. The streak started with a 115 on Saturday before the all-time record of 120 on Sunday, followed with 115, 119, 118 and 118.

Record streaks

Before the current heat spell, four days had been the record for consecutive days with highs of 115 or more. It was first set nearly 20 years ago, July 16-19, 2005, according to the weather service.

Thursday also marked the ninth straight day of highs reaching 110 or higher. Since July 3, daily high temperatures have reached 113 or hotter.

A streak of 10 days has only happened twice in recorded Las Vegas weather history (since 1937) – June 17-26, 1962, and last year, July 14-23.

Cooling stations across the region will remain open through 11 p.m. Friday.

The weather service’s excessive heat warning in place for more than a week is set to expire at 11 p.m. Friday.

Heat issues

Calls to fire departments for heat-related issues have been higher than normal in recent weeks.

North Las Vegas reported 18 heat-related calls from July 1-9, compared to nine the same period a year ago.

Clark County reported 36 calls classified as heat exposure from July 1 to early July 11, a county spokeswoman said. Of those, 24 were transported to a hospital. In June, CCFD had 60 heat-related calls for the month with 34 transports.

“Heat also can be a factor in other types of calls such as those related to alcohol intoxication or when conditions like fainting, dizziness or nausea are reported,” Stephanie Wheatley stated in an email. “Most heat-related medical issues occur because people get overexposed to heat or over exercise for their age and physical condition.”

Henderson reported 66 heat-related incidents from May 1 through July 11. Of the 66, 43 were taken to a hospital for treatment.

Figures from the Las Vegas Fire Department were not yet available.

The airport had 290 delayed flights and just 11 cancellations as of 3:30 p.m. Thursday.