How The Arizona Republic covered June 26, 1990, Phoenix's hottest day ever
It's heating up as summer approaches, but current temperatures pale in comparison to the sweltering, egg-frying heat that hit the Valley on June 26, 1990.
The 122-degree day — the hottest day recorded in Phoenix history — lives in infamy for long-time Arizona residents. The record was front and center of the Arizona Republic's June 27, 1990, edition, which listed temperatures starting at 118 degrees at 1 p.m. and reaching the day's peak at 2:47.
Arizona's state climatologist, Erinanne Saffell, said she remembers feeling the heat rise from underneath her as she stood in a parking lot that day. But Saffell didn't know how that heat impacted others in her community until she read the paper the following day, she said.
"You can feel it. It kind of sucks the air out of you," Saffell said of her experience on the record-shattering day. "Then, after we went through that day, there was information from Sky Harbor that they had to shut down because they didn't have the charts that went all the way up to that temperature to be able to identify when to launch the planes."
More than 20 flights from multiple airlines at Sky Harbor were canceled, delayed or diverted, The Republic reported, calling it "the Phoenix version of snowed-in runways."
Three people were reported to have died, and paramedics responded to dozens of heat-related calls that day, mostly due to dehydration. The second page of the June 27 newspaper posted a list of tips to help readers cool off themselves, their pets and their cars, in addition to information about how the body reacts to extreme heat.
One dispatcher from the Department of Public Safety told the paper that the heat was "around the worst we have ever seen." Air conditioning installers, towing businesses and firefighters were overwhelmed with phone calls, The Republic reported.
Phoenix hit its previous heat record in 1925 at 118 degrees, The Republic told readers. A meteorologist from AccuWeather, a commercial weather forecasting service based in Pennsylvania, called the heat record "unbelievable" and said that his coworkers couldn't fathom what Phoenix's weather must feel like.
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AccuWeather's current senior meteorologist, Paul Pastelok, said the record-high temperatures were a result of inadequate monsoon seasons, which led to drought and dried-out ground that exacerbated heat in the Southwest. Inadequate monsoons, he said, start later than mid-summer and don't last long enough to wet the ground sufficiently.
"The more you delay the monsoon, which we did last year a little bit, the hotter it gets and the drier it stays," Pastelok said. "In the Southwest, we had a heat dome, a big upper high, similar to what we saw in 1990."
Saffell said the growth of Arizona's cities has helped intensify heat waves, as the urban heat island effect has cultivated higher temperatures at night. Arizona faced only five days a year on average that were 110 degrees or higher in 1900, compared to the current average of 25 days a year of 110 degree-weather, she said.
Phoenix had one of its hottest summers in 2023, sweltering at or above 110 degrees for 55 days. The year ended with 654 heat-related deaths, according to data collected by Maricopa County.
Ladd Keith, an assistant professor at the University of Arizona who specializes in urban planning for climate change, said it is more likely that cities in Arizona and beyond will experience longer heat waves rather than higher temperatures. Extended periods of high temperatures can be especially dangerous in areas that lack the resources to mitigate extreme heat, he said.
"Lower income areas have less trees, have more dryscape, more concrete and they're physically hotter than some of the areas that are wealthier," Ladd said. "That discrepancy is important to recognize because it also creates more heat exposure for those folks that may work outdoors, may have more poorly weatherized homes, may not have the ability to afford health care, and things like that."
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: How The Arizona Republic covered Phoenix's hottest day ever
