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The City of Phoenix Heat Response Program team volunteers prepare heat relief kits for the public in need.
Editor’s Note: A version of this article originally appeared in the weekly weather newsletter, the CNN Weather Brief, which is released every Monday. You can sign up here to receive them every week and during significant storms.
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Record-long extreme heat streaks are finally coming to an end, but despite the signs of relief, the dangerous heat isn’t going away completely. The relentless heat dome driving the deadly heat wave will meander across the southern tier of the US this week, bringing more record-breaking temperatures.
The numbers so far this summer have been jaw-dropping: In El Paso, Texas, the high temperature topped 100 degrees for a record-breaking 44 straight days; in Miami, the heat index stayed above 100 degrees for 46 consecutive days; and in Phoenix, temperatures have been at or above 110 degrees for 31 consecutive days.
All of those streaks will have ended by Monday if Phoenix hits its closer-to-average forecast high of 108 degrees.
It’s been so hot for so long the average temperature for Phoenix for the month of July set a record at 103 degrees, shattering the previous one by 4 degrees. It goes to show this heat has been exceptional even for one of the nation’s hottest cities.
“It’s been a year of abnormalities and streaks, so it’s just a testament to just how strange this year has been,” said Ryan Worley, meteorologist for the National Weather Service office in Phoenix.
Why temperatures have been so hot
Phoenix has yet to join other parts of the state with measurable monsoon rain, something that the city is desperately counting on to cool temperatures down. If Phoenix receives rainfall Monday, it would be the third latest monsoon rainfall on record.
The city will get a slight “break” from the heat Monday and Tuesday as the threat of monsoon rains rolls through, but highs will be back up above 110 degrees by midweek, possibly making it to 116 degrees by the weekend.
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A person hides under a face cover in Manhattan's Central Park during a heat wave in New York on Friday, July 28.
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A construction worker drinks cold water during a heat wave where temperatures have reached over 110 degrees Fahrenheit for 27 consecutive days in Scottsdale, Arizona, on July 28.
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People keep cool in a fountain at New York's Battery Park on Thursday, July 27.
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Yemichael Abebe uses an umbrella to take shelter from the sun while waiting for a bus in Takoma Park, Maryland, on July 27.
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City workers take a break in the shade of a nearby storefront as they lay down new pavement in Woodland Hills, California, on July 27.
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A woman shades herself from the sun along the Brooklyn Bridge in New York on July 27.
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Vendors sell cold drinks near the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, on July 27.
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Snickers, a great horned owl, is sprayed down with water by a volunteer at Liberty Wildlife, an animal rehabilitation center and hospital in Phoenix, on Wednesday, July 26.
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Representatives of the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust distribute shelter information and bottles of water to people in Miami on July 25.
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Rick White drinks water while cooling down in his tent in "The Zone," Phoenix's largest homeless encampment, on Tuesday, July 25.
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A cactus in Phoenix is affected by the extreme heat and drought. Record-high temperatures in Arizona, combined with a lack of seasonal monsoons, have caused saguaro cactuses at the Desert Botanical Garden
to become "highly stressed," according to Chief Science Officer Kimberlie McCue.
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Israel Sanchez, left, and Alfonso Garcia carry a person onto a stretcher in Eagle Pass, Texas, on July 18. The person, who was suffering from dehydration, fell sick after he and his mother were found with a group of migrants who recently crossed the Rio Grande into the United States.
Adriana Zehbrauskas/The New York Times/Redux
Roberto Guerrero, left, and his son Jose work in the early morning to install a new air conditioner at a home in Phoenix on July 18. Guerrero is part of perhaps the most essential workforce in town: AC repair techs. "If they need us, we go," he said of the long work hours.
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A person covers their head while trying to stay cool in "The Zone," a vast homeless encampment where hundreds of people reside in Phoenix, on July 18.
Paul Ratje/The New York Times/Redux
Workers harvest onions overnight in Salem, New Mexico, to avoid working in the heat of the day on July 18.
Bridget Bennett/Reuters
A man in Las Vegas puts his head in misters to cool off on July 17.
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A heat advisory sign is shown along Highway 190 at Death Valley National Park in Death Valley, California, on July 16.
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People sit in a crowded room at Phoenix's Justa Center, one of the area's many cooling centers, on July 16.
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A sign warning of extreme heat invites people to "Chill with Jesus" inside a church in Tucson, Arizona, on July 15.
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A firefighter watches flames from the
Rabbit Fire approach Gilman Springs Road in Moreno Valley, California, on July 14.
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A person seeking shelter from the heat watches the weather forecast at the First Congregational United Church of Christ in Phoenix on July 14.
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Capt. Darren Noak, a medic with Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services, applies a chemical ice pack to a man in Austin, Texas, on July 12.
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A person fishes in Isle of Palms, South Carolina, on July 12.
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A sleeping child is protected from the sun in Los Angeles on July 12.
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A sign displays the temperature on July 12 as jets taxi at Phoenix's Sky Harbor International Airport.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman/AP
Kristin Peterson cools off with a cold bandana at the Sunrise Homeless Navigation Center in Austin on July 11.
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The "World's Tallest Thermometer" shows temperatures reaching triple digits in Baker, California, on July 11.
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Steven Rodriguez picks okra in Coachella, California, on July 11.
Meanwhile, with little rain for relief, more than 40 million people across the Deep South and Southern Plains are still under heat alerts. More than 140 potential high temperature records could fall again this week, as the oppressive heat shows no signs of backing down across the country’s midsection.
It is especially true in Dallas. The city could experience its hottest days of the year this week, with highs potentially topping 110 degrees on Tuesday.
High temperatures will stay in the triple digits all the way through the weekend, at times running as much as 10 degrees above normal.
Little Rock, Arkansas, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Houston will feel as hot as 110 degrees or higher Monday and much of the week, with no relief in sight. Unfortunately, there is no real chance of cooler temperatures for some of the hottest locations for the foreseeable future, as this dome of high pressure responsible for the extreme heat won’t budge.