Phoenix And Las Vegas Face Record Heat, Health Danger

By Douglas McIntyre • June 5, 2024

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Another heat dome will cover part of the US this week, from Phoenix to Las Vegas.

According to Accuweather, ”The combination of a bulge in the jet stream, high-pressure building at most levels of the atmosphere and a storm offshore of California will allow the heat to build without any shower or thunderstorm activity for about 50 million people in the West through at least Thursday.”

Expect temperatures in Phoenix to reach well above 110 degrees F, 54 days last year.

High Temperatures

Sweltering temperatures in big cities have two immediate aspects. The first is health. If last year is any indication, high heat will kill hundreds of people in the US.

The other is economic. High heat brings outdoor workers inside. However, that is not always true due to lax or non-existent regulations. This, in and of itself, helps crowd emergency rooms.

Additionally, the strain on the grid in many areas has begun to cause competing interests. In some areas, these include bitcoin mining and AI servers. Residential and business use can drop grids even without these.