The heat in the Southwest has been absurd on many levels this July. Among the harder to fathom, Phoenix is on its way to becoming the first major U.S. city to reach an average monthly temperature higher than 100 degrees. Not an average high. An overall average.

Through July 20, the average high for the month in Phoenix is 114.4 degrees, with an average low of 90.4 degrees. This gives an overall monthly average of 102.4 degrees for July to date. Through Thursday, the city is running 3.3 degrees hotter than the prior hottest month to date when most monthly records are beat by tenths of a degree.

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The city is among a list of a few populated places more broadly to reach such a feat. The next largest city to have met that point before this year has a population of about 58,000 people.

According to NOAA data, the handful of relatively smaller cities that have reached a monthly average of 100 degree or higher temperatures include:

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• Death Valley, Calif.: 108.1 degrees in July 2018
• Lake Havasu City, Ariz.: 102.2 degrees in July 1996
• Needles, Calif.: 100.9 degrees in July 2006

Lake Havasu City — straddling the California and Arizona border — is a tourist hot spot on the shore of the massive reservoir known as Havasu Lake. Besides Phoenix, it is the next-largest city to have accomplished an average monthly temperature of 100 degrees or greater. Its population of about 58,000 people compares to Phoenix’s 1.6 million-plus people.

Phoenix nearly reached the 100-degree-plus monthly average in August 2020, when the monthly reading was a roasting 99.1 degrees. Before 2023, it was the city’s prior hottest month on record and came during its hottest summer on record.

This milestone can also be compared to the hottest recorded months in some other notably hot U.S. cities:

• Las Vegas: 96.2 degrees in July 2010
• Dallas: 94.4 degrees in August 2011
• Shreveport, La.: 91.5 degrees in August 2011
• Houston: 90.4 degrees in August 2011
• Miami: 85.9 degrees in July 2020. (This year is on target to break that record.)

Plugging in data from the National Blend of Models — a product that is basically what it sounds like — through the rest of the month, delivers an average temperature of 102.7 degrees in Phoenix for July 2023. This is off an average high of 114.3 degrees and an average low of 91.2 degrees.

If it comes to pass, that’s more than 6 degrees hotter than any other major city on the list above. Brutal.

This would also demolish the old monthly records in Phoenix for the average high and average low temperatures. The current high mark for average high is 110.7 degrees in August 2020, and for an average low it is 88 degrees in July 2020.

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These staggering stats include a record warm low of 97 degrees on July 19, plus two days of highs reaching 119 degrees. Only three days during modern history in Phoenix have reached 120 degrees or above, with the highest 122 degrees on June 26, 1990.

The blended data expects the city’s temperature to come in below 110 degrees on the last day of the month, which would be the first time that happens in all of July. Currently, there have been 20 days in a row of 110-plus degrees, having already zoomed by the prior streak of 18 days with highs of 110 degrees or higher, and it’s only a matter of how high the new record goes.

Friday is also the 12th day in a row with lows of 90 degrees or higher, beating the old streak of seven in several years, including twice in 2020. The coolest temperature of the month came in its first few hours, with a low of 81 degrees on July 1.

Lack of cooling at night not only supports the of the incomprehensible monthly values but also makes the situation much more dangerous, given that there is no time for humans and animals outdoors to get any relief. It is truly a case where staying in an air-conditioned space could be a basic requirement for survival.

Unfortunately for residents of the city and surrounding region, there is no end in sight to the major heat. The Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center is forecasting that above-normal conditions will persist through August.

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