Las Vegas ties record high of 104 degrees
While many locals flocked outside to embrace a record-tying 104 degrees Sunday, some tourists were surprised by the Las Vegas heat.
Such was evident at the downtown Container Park, where a smaller-than-usual crowd sought shade under trees and air conditioning inside the park’s stores and restaurants.
Angel Barrera, 23, and son Ezio, 4, of Las Vegas, were among roughly a dozen people taking in the sun on the facility’s playground.
“It doesn’t bother us, really,” said Barrera, carrying a backpack filled with water bottles and sunscreen. “As long as we’re outside, it feels normal.”
Though interviewed locals appeared well-adapted, a couple of visiting New Yorkers at the park were visibly affected by the heat.
Wearing a hat, Florita Class, 55, sat in the shade with her daughter. The two snacked on Italian ices to keep cool.
“I didn’t expect this heat,” Class said. “We thought this was weather for June or July here.”
Temperatures reached 104 at the National Weather Service’s official monitoring site, McCarran International Airport, at 2:33 p.m., meteorologist Caleb Steele said. Then it dropped to 102. Winds of 10 to 15 mph blew across the valley, with stronger gusts west of Interstate 15.
The valley’s ultraviolet index Sunday was 10, “the very high category,” Steele explained. He asked sun-dwellers to remember the Southwest summer necessities — shade, water and sunscreen, whether a record is broken or not.
Triple-digit temperatures will linger Monday, before gradually cooling to the low 90s by the end of the week, Steele said.
The June 5 average temperature in Las Vegas is 96 degrees, and temperatures will be slightly below that.
With 21 days to go before the official start of summer, Las Vegans can expect triple-digit temperatures to be a regularity for the next few months. Though Sunday’s high of 104 tied a record for May 31, set in 2002, it was still 13 degrees below Las Vegas’ all-time record of 117 degrees, set on June 30, 2013.
Shaded by a small tree at the Container Park, Ricky Leone, 60, of Las Vegas, said heat of any kind isn’t a big deal.
Watching a band perform on a nearby park stage, Leone said he’s well adapted to high temperatures after 10 summers in the valley.
“If it’s 10 degrees hotter, what the heck,” Leone said. “There’s plenty of shade. We’ll be OK.”
Review-Journal writers Kimberly De La Cruz and Ricardo Torres contributed to this report. Contact Chris Kudialis at ckudialis@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0283. Find him on Twitter: @kudialisrj.
