A small Arizona community broke the record for highest temperature ever recorded in March in the United States, reaching a scorching 110 degrees on March 19amid an early heat wave in the Southwest.
The temperature reached 110 degrees on March 19 near Martinez Lake, a recreation community in southwestern Arizona, about 45 minutes north of Yuma, the National Weather Servicesaid.
The previous March temperature record was first set in 1954 in Rio Grande, Texas, at 108 degrees. That record was also matched during this heat wave onMarch 18near North Shore, California, according to the weather service.
The news comes as Arizona, California and other Southwestern states have faced an unprecedented early heat wave for multiple days. The heat is the result of a high-pressure system spinning across the West, causing "an expansive dome of unusually hot temperatures," the weather service has said.
The resulting temperatures are unprecedented.
More than 18 million Americans remain under extreme heat warnings the morning of March 20 across Southern California, southern Nevada, and much of Arizona. Millions more were under heat advisories.
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Heat wave shatters numerous daily, monthly records
The heat wave that set in earlier this week has already shattered daily high temperature records in cities throughout the Southwest and even some all-time March records.
Temperatures on March 19 in Phoenixsoared to 105 degrees, breaking the record of 97 for the same date in 2017, according to the weather service. With an extreme heat warning in effect for metro Phoenix, temperatures jumped into the three-digit range by around 1 p.m. The high temperature in Phoenix was around 25 degrees above normal. The first 105-degree day of the year, on average, normally occurs on May 22nd, the weather serviceposted on X.
Phoenix doesn't usually reach 100 degrees for the first time in a year until about May 10, though before this year, itsearliest-recorded 100-degree day in a yearwas March 26, 1988.
In the Los Angeles region,daily records dating back decadeshave been broken since the heat wave began. In Downtown Los Angeles on March 17, the high got to 98 degrees, smashing the record of 94 set over a century ago in 1914.
Cities in California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado, Oregon, Idaho and Wyoming have brokenall-time March records.
Contributing: Sarah Henry, the Arizona Republic
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic:Arizona town shatters US temperature record for March