It’s hot even for Nevadans

Thursday, Sept. 14, 2000 | 11:13 a.m.

Hot enough for ya?

While heat is no stranger to those living in Nevada, the state got more of it than usual this summer.

The National Climatic Data Center, an agency of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, reported Wednesday that June 1 to Aug. 31 was the third-warmest summer on record for Nevada.

"You've had a pretty long, hot summer," said Tom Ross, a meteorologist with the federal agency.

Ross said that records and near records were logged all over the state. Southern Nevada had 21 days in a row with temperatures over 105 degrees from July 18 through Aug. 7, tying a record set in 1923 and 1957.

Ely, in Nevada's northeast, set a record with 21 days at 90 degrees or above, from July 19 through Aug. 8, Ross said. The previous record was 17 days.

The average temperature was 71.6 degrees Fahrenheit over the summer in the state. The second-warmest year on record averaged 71.8 degrees in 1994, and the warmest was in the Dust Bowl era -- 72.4 in 1931.

The average, pulled from four divisions of the state, is 68.5 degrees, Ross said.

The coolest summer on record was back in 1907, with an average temperature of 63.7.

Nevada's neighbors also cooked under hot and dry conditions this summer.

It was the second-warmest season on record for Utah, the fifth for Wyoming, the sixth for Colorado and eighth for both Arizona and New Mexico, according to the federal data.

Although it didn't threaten records, the Southwest and Rocky Mountains also had drier conditions than normal.

Hotter and drier conditions for the last 12 months "has resulted in a rapid intensification of long-term, cumulative drought conditions" in the West, contributing to the wildfire problem throughout the region, the study said.

The hottest temperatures exceeded 115 degrees in parts of Southern California and topped 105 over much of Texas and the Southern Plains.

The federal scientists said the conditions are the worst for wildfires since the 1930s.

The West isn't alone. Other droughts have stricken the Central Plains and the Deep South of the country. Areas that were spared included the western Great Lakes region and Northeast, which had wetter and cooler summers than normal.

The nationally averaged temperature from June 1 through Aug. 31 was 73.2 degrees Fahrenheit -- or 1.1 degrees above the normal average -- making this the 11th-warmest summer since record-keeping began in 1895, according to the Asheville, N.C.-based data center.

But it failed to get over 90 degrees at any time during the summer across the western Great Lakes, the eastern Ohio Valley and into the Appalachians and interior of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast.

Nationwide, it was the 15th-driest season on record, and the first summer since 1991 in which nationally averaged precipitation was below normal.

Although this summer was somewhat unusual, State Climatologist John James warned that people shouldn't view it as evidence of a trend.

"It's hard to draw any conclusions from something like this," he said.

James said he doesn't believe that global warming is a factor that would tilt local temperatures up by a noticeable factor over the course of a summer.

Kim Patti, a meteorologist with Pennsylvania-based AccuWeather, a private weather service, said people shouldn't blame ocean currents, either.

"El Nino and La Nina have been used way too often as a scapegoat," she said. "It's just a natural fluctuation of the climate."

But higher temperatures might be the result of the growth of "urban heat islands" in cities, including Las Vegas and Reno, James said.

Reno has had 17 months in a row of above-normal temperatures, he noted.

"That's a hell of a bunch," James said. "That's like hitting the jackpot on one pull."

Larry Jensen, meteorologist in charge of the National Weather Service offices in Las Vegas, doesn't expect to see any new records over the next several months.

"The long-range outlook is calling for basically dry conditions and temperatures at, or a little above, normal," Jensen said.