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Vegas could break heat record as tens of millions across US face scorching temperatures

Students try to shield themselves from the sunlight at the Griffith Observatory gardens in Los Angeles Friday, July 14, 2023. Over a third of Americans are under extreme heat advisories, watches, and warnings as a blistering heatwave continues across the Southwest and California. The sweltering conditions were expected to keep building Friday and through the weekend. Forecasters say some California residents should prepare for the hottest weather of the year. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
Students try to shield themselves from the sunlight at the Griffith Observatory gardens in Los Angeles Friday, July 14, 2023. Over a third of Americans are under extreme heat advisories, watches, and warnings as a blistering heatwave continues across the Southwest and California. The sweltering conditions were expected to keep building Friday and through the weekend. Forecasters say some California residents should prepare for the hottest weather of the year. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes) Students try to shield themselves from the sunlight at the Griffith Observatory gardens in Los Angeles Friday, July 14, 2023. Over a third of Americans are under extreme heat advisories, watches, and warnings as a blistering heatwave continues across the Southwest and California. The sweltering conditions were expected to keep building Friday and through the weekend. Forecasters say some California residents should prepare for the hottest weather of the year. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

By KEN RITTER and JULIE WATSON / Associated Press 5 min read

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Visitors to Las Vegas on Friday stepped out momentarily to snap photos and were hit by blast-furnace air. But most will spend their vacations in a vastly different climate — at casinos where the chilly air conditioning might require a light sweater.

Meanwhile, emergency room doctors were witnessing another world, as dehydrated construction workers, passed-out elderly residents and others suffered in an intense heat wave threatening to break the city’s all-time record high of 117 degrees Fahrenheit (47.2 degrees Celsius) this weekend.

Few places in the scorching Southwest demonstrate the surreal contrast between indoor and outdoor life like Las Vegas, a neon-lit city rich with resorts, casinos, swimming pools, indoor nightclubs and shopping. Tens of millions of others across California and the Southwest, were also scrambling for ways to stay cool and safe from the dangers of extreme heat.

“We’ve been talking about this building heat wave for a week now, and now the most intense period is beginning,” the National Weather Service wrote Friday.

Nearly a third of Americans were under extreme heat advisories, watches and warnings. The blistering heat wave was forecast to get worse this weekend for Nevada, Arizona and California, where desert temperatures were predicted to soar in parts past 120 degrees Fahrenheit (48.8 degrees Celsius) during the day, and remain in the 90s F (above 32.2 C) overnight.