First heat wave of the season will cause very high temperatures in the southeastern United States

Several parts of California, Nevada and Arizona are expected to see very high temperatures this week with the arrival of the first heat wave that, according to forecasts, will generate triple-digit temperatures on the Fahrenheit scale in areas such as Phoenix, which last summer had a record of 31 consecutive days with at least 43.3 °C (110 °F).

By Wednesday, most of an area stretching from southeastern California to central Arizona will have “easily its highest” temperatures since last September, with daily temperature records likely to be broken from Las Vegas to Phoenix, the United States National Weather Service.

Excessive heat alerts have been issued from 10 a.m. Wednesday to 8 p.m. Friday due to “dangerously hot conditions,” the agency said.

Fire crews will be on red alert especially in Arizona, where fire restrictions went into effect before Memorial Day in some areas, and will be ordered by Thursday in most western and south-central areas. of the state, according to authorities.

Fire forecasting agencies and the Southwest Coordination Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico, said the region’s weather generally doesn’t get as hot until mid- to late June.

“It looks like Mother Nature is turning up the heat on us a little earlier than usual,” Tiffany Davila, a spokeswoman for the Arizona Department of Forest Resources and Fire Management, said Monday afternoon.

“We cannot escape a fire just because the outside temperature almost reaches 113 degrees (Fahrenheit, which is 45 °C), but we can monitor all the people who are in the field. You have to make sure they stay hydrated and take more breaks than usual,” he told The Associated Press.

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