Heat Wave Scorches Western States

By Rebecca Boone
The Associated Press

Friday 06 July 2007

Boise, Idaho - When the mercury hit 104, Rick Overton took his colleagues tubing on the Boise River, thinking it couldn't get much hotter. A day later, parts of the West were in for a little relief, but not everywhere - Boise was expected to hit 107 degrees Friday.

"Once it gets that high - 105, 107, 109 - it just feels hot," said Overton, a copywriter for the digital marketing firm Wirestone.

Warnings of excessive heat were still posted Friday morning for much of Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Oregon and Washington state. The Southwest was expected to cool off slightly, though, said weather service meteorologist Jamie Meier.

"The high pressure system that has been stubbornly parked over Southern California is on a weakening trend, allowing temperatures to cool down to seasonable temperatures," Meier said.

For California firefighters who have been trying to put down a 1,500-acre blaze in the rugged canyons above Santa Barbara, the cooler forecast could only sound good. Four had to be treated for heat exhaustion on Thursday.

"It's a matter of too much work and too much heat," said Santa Barbara County Fire Capt. Eli Iskow.

Temperatures climbed so high across much of the West on Thursday that authorities warned residents of southern Nevada, southeastern California and northwestern Arizona that outdoor activities could be dangerous except during the cooler early morning hours. Phoenix reached 115 degrees; Baker, Calif., reached 125 degrees.

At the Big Boy Restaurant in Baker, which has a 134-foot-tall thermometer outside, there was a run on cold shakes, general manager Enrique Munoz said.

"We had actually had to hire an extra shaker just to make shakes," he said.

Even Stanley, Idaho, which at more than 6,000 feet elevation is routinely the coldest place in the lower 48 states, was seeing record highs, the National Weather Service said. The remote town in the Sawtooth Mountains reached 92 degrees Thursday, and was expected to hit 93 degrees Friday.

Hardly anyone in the tiny town has air conditioning, said Nancy Anderson, Stanley deputy city clerk. "They're all going to the lakes and the rivers and trying to find the shade," she said.

At least 150,000 people were expected to head for the Lake Mead National Recreation Area in Nevada and Arizona to cool off this weekend, said Roxanne Dey, recreation area spokeswoman.

Summer temperatures across Utah are running 10 to 15 degrees above normal, meteorologist Brandon Smith said.

"To be honest, as far as temperatures, for as far out as we can see there's no relief," he said.

Around Las Vegas - where temperatures reached 116 degrees Thursday afternoon - transformers overheated and caused electrical pole fires because of all the people switching on their air conditioners, said Scott Allison with the Clark County Fire Department.

Officials warned residents to take extra care. In Orfino, Idaho, a 1-year-old boy was found dead in a locked car in temperatures approaching 100 degrees on Wednesday. He was locked in the car for about five hours when passers-by noticed him, authorities said Thursday.

In Montana, farmers anxiously watched their crops and thermometers.

"Prolonged heat is devastating. Four or five days of it is going to be hard," said wheat farmer Lynn Nordwick near Poplar, Mont.

Northeastern Oregon residents experienced what was expected to be the hottest day of the year Thursday, with temperatures reaching 108 in Pendleton and 107 in Hermiston.

On Friday, Pendleton's forecast still called for triple-digit temperatures, and a red flag warning meaning a high danger of wildfires was posted.

The heat and a dry spring has raised concerns among firefighters across the West.

"We're really primed to burn right now," said Dennis Winkler, an assistant fire management officer for the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest. "We're well above average in terms of fire danger for this time of year."

The heat wave began last week after a large high-pressure center developed over Arizona, said National Weather Service forecaster Paul Flatt in Boise. A weather pattern was pushing that high-pressure center north into Canada, Flatt said, but most of the West is expected to experience high temperatures into next week.

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Associated Press writers Robert Jablon in Los Angeles, John K. Wiley in Spokane, Wash., Tim Fought in Portland, Ore., Ken Ritter in Las Vegas, Jennifer Dobner in Salt Lake City, Moises D. Mendoza in Phoenix and Susan Gallagher in Helena, Mont., contributed to this report.

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