The extreme temperatures prompted American Airlines yesterday to ground 43 flights to and from Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport, where temperatures were set to reach a record 49º Celsius.
The cancellations are now affecting shorter, regional flights which use Bombardier CRJ Aircrafts, American Airlines said in a statement Monday.
Forecasters say the current heat wave should break by early next week, returning Phoenix to more typical summer temperatures - around 110 degrees.
American Airlines cancelled 20 regional flights out of Phoenix, Arizona on Tuesday after temperatures in the desert city soared toward 49 degrees Celsius. When it comes to extreme heat, Arizona is one of the many states at risk.
The National Weather Service reported that Phoenix is expected to hit 120 degrees by late Tuesday afternoon. Further west, Death Valley, Calif., temperatures are predicted to be a suffocating 126 degrees for the second consecutive day.
The flights affected by the heat tend to be on smaller regional carriers, which use planes that operate under lower maximum temperatures.
In Phoenix, Arizona, though, airlines still use small jets for shorter trips. They'll last through Thursday, and forecast highs mean the region could set all-time records. The plane has a maximum operating temperature of 118 degrees, as determined by the manufacturer, according to ABC News.
In Las Vegas, which also has seen its share of record-shattering heat, National Weather Service staffers got creative - and conducted an experiment to show just how hot it is.
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Heavy rainfall associated with remnants of the storm caused scattered street flooding across central and southern IN on Friday. Stronger thunderstorms Friday afternoon and evening also could bring damaging wind gusts, according to the weather service.
Searing footpaths are the bane of human and beast alike in Las Vegas.
The density altitude is the main issue, but there also could be simple heat issues on internal components like seals that might become too soft or even melt at higher temperature, MIT aeronautics and astronautics professor R. John Hansman said.
Phoenix, which sits atop of a plateau and is surrounded by a bubble of high air pressure, often achieves heat levels that greatly exceed even that of other cities in Arizona like Tucson.
Airplanes take off and stay aloft because of lift, the force from the movement of air underneath the plane's wings that push it upward.
Tourists abandoned the normally bustling Las Vegas Strip to seek refuge inside air-conditioned hotels and casinos as the town that likes to call itself Sin City endured temperatures from hell and airlines cancelled flights out of the gambling mecca. He added climate change is nearly certainly playing a role in nearly all extreme heat events "for most of the world".
A California man has died after taking part in a 5K run in searing heat.
"So if we didn't have these hot temperatures right now, we wouldn't have any chance for a monsoon later on in the year". The National Weather Service has issued an excessive heat warning and its Phoenix office has said 'heat of this magnitude is rare, unsafe and very possibly deadly'.
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