With highs of 110 degrees and hotter in the short-range forecast, the Valley is under an excessive heat warning through Thursday.
According to the National Weather Service, which issued the warning, the combination of extreme heat and very high or low humidity can cause health problems for an average adult unless caution is exercised.
In response, the Salvation Army has opened 10 hydration stations across the Valley, including one in Chandler at 85 E. Saragosa St.
The area's maximum daytime temperature in mid-June is normally around 104. But a strengthening high-pressure system over northern Mexico is dominating the local weather pattern, sending highs to levels a few degrees short of daily records.
At Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, home to Phoenix’s official thermometer, the high today crested at 112.
The forecast for Tuesday and Wednesday calls for highs of 113; the records those days are, respectively, 114 and 115.
That dome of high pressure is expected to slightly weaken Thursday and into the weekend, allowing the highs to drop about a degree a day.
An extreme heat warning was in effect on Sunday, when the high reached 112.
Shortly before 11 p.m. Sunday, when the conditions had “cooled” to about 99, a power outage struck homes and businesses in west Tempe.
According to Salt River Project, about 8,000 customers were without electricity — and, therefore, air conditioning — for more than an hour. The affected area was from around 47th Street to Hardy Drive and Fifth Street to Broadway Road.
To blame, SRP spokesman Jeff Lane said, was a fox that got caught up in a 69,000-volt line at the Weiler Substation, located at about 52nd and 12th streets.
The fox was killed.
