Pushing the limit on temperatures

Monday, July 14, 2003 | 11:04 a.m.

When Leslie Huihui arrived in Las Vegas about a year ago from Hilo, Hawaii, he thought he knew what hot temperatures felt like.

But the steelworker, who was changing a dead battery in his sport utility vehicle in Henderson on Sunday evening, said he was ready to go back to the Big Island's 80-degree highs.

The 114-degree high temperature in Las Vegas on Sunday missed the 115-degree record set on July 13, 1939, by one degree, National Weather Service forecaster Jon Adair said.

The forecast for today calls for 113 degrees, which won't touch the 116-degree record set on July 14, 1972, Adair said.

But low-for-the-day temperatures are setting records here, he said.

The record high minimum temperature for July 13 was 89 degrees set in 1961, and Las Vegas tied it Sunday, Adair said.

"It's a big change being here," said Huihui, whose name means "Big Family" in Hawaiian.

Huihui started work with an indoor assignment at Mandalay Bay, but is now working on building flood channels around the Las Vegas Valley.

"We drink probably a gallon and a half of water each for every eight-hour shift," he said of the outdoor work. "At Mandalay Bay we were in air conditioning."

Environmental science intern Emma Aronson of Philadelphia walked more than a mile from her apartment to reach a shopping mall in Green Valley on Sunday because she does not own a car.

Aronson wore a straw hat, sunscreen and thick-soled walking shoes and carried a cool drink.

"It's quite a different climate," Aronson said of Southern Nevada's scorching desert heat compared to either her native Pennsylvania or McGill University in Montreal, where she is a senior this year.

Aronson became an intern for the U.S. Geological Survey this summer in Las Vegas through the Student Conservation Association, which links students with federal agencies throughout the United States.

She said she is studying how rodents carry desert plant seeds to new locations.

"A lot of the time we spend in the desert and it's about 10 degrees cooler than the city," Aronson said of her treks to mesas and foothills outside urban Las Vegas.

"Out there when we are collecting samples, at least there is a breeze," Aronson said.

Even animals knew how to beat the heat, from a dog racing through a local park's sprinklers to sparrows, their wings spread, taking advantage of cooling misters on the roof of a Starbucks in Henderson.

More humidity is in the weather forecast for later this week along with continued heat, Adair said. The temperatures may not break records, but they will remain above normal, which is about 104 degrees for daytime highs on average this time of year.

"It's too soon to tell if we will get heavy downpours next weekend," Adair said. "Probably more the garden-variety thunderstorms."