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PHOENIX —Summers are always hot in central Arizona, but 2024 is proving to be an endless summer with especially high temperatures in Phoenix. On Sept. 3, the city hit its 100th straight day with at least 100 degree temperatures.
That's long since shattered the record of 76 days in a row set back in 1993, according to data from the National Weather Service. The temperature hit 102 F in Phoenix on May 27 and has made it to triple digits every day since. NWS meteorologist Sean Benedict said that long streaks of desert heat usually are broken up by rain, but the monsoon hasn't delivered much.
The persistent heat also got an early start, with the triple-digit days already piling up in May. Public health officials in Arizona's Maricopa County — where Phoenix is located, the hottest metro area in the U.S.
— say that as of Aug. 24 there had been 150 heat-related deaths confirmed so far this year, with another 443 under investigation. There were 645 heat-related deaths last year in the county of some 4.
5 million people. Pretty much any way the data is parsed, 2024 marks another record-breaking summer of heat in Phoenix. It’s been the hottest meteorological summer, which includes the months June, July and August.
And it’s the same story throughout the western U.S. with several locations in California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah and New Mexico setting records or coming close.
Denver offering places to cool down during expected triple digit heat wave In Phoenix, there have been 37 nights this summer that didn't cool off below 90 F, another record. There have also been 54 days of 110 degree temperatures, which is just one day away from breaking the record of 55 days last year. That number was forecast to be broken within days.
The Navajo Nation has approved emergency legislation meant to strengthen a tribal law that regulates the transportation of radioactive material across the largest Native American reservation in the U.S. The move is in response to the revival of a uranium mining operation just south of the Grand Canyon that has drawn much criticism from environmentalists and Native American tribes in the region.
Navajo President Buu Nygren signed the legislation on Aug. 29 as talks continue among tribal officials and Energy Fuels Inc. to craft an agreement that would address concerns about any potential risks to the public or the environment.
The updated law calls for more advance notification of plans to ship uranium ore from the Pinyon Plain Mine in northern Arizona to a mill in Utah. The payment of transport fees and the filing of emergency preparedness plans also are among the mandates. Uranium mining: A Colorado company pumps out ore, with implications for economy and national security The tribe in 2005 banned uranium mining across the sprawling reservation, pointing to the painful legacy of contamination, illness and death that was left behind by the extraction of nearly 30 millions tons of the ore during World War II and the Cold War.
If a company ignored the rules, the Navajo Nation Environmental Protection Agency could issue an order of compliance along with penalties. The Navajo attorney general could also seek a temporary restraining order or injunction through tribal court if the law were violated. OKLAHOMA CITY — A nearly century-old Oklahoma company that supplies stock for rodeos had as many as 70 horses die in late August after receiving what an owner believes was tainted feed.
Rhett Beutler, co-owner of Beutler and Son Rodeo Co. near Elk City, told KFOR-TV that the horses died shortly after being fed. "All them horses are kind of like my kids; I've raised them from time they were born," Beutler told KOKH-TV, "Once you lose one, that's one too many.
" The Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry said in a statement that it was notified Aug. 23 of the horses' deaths related to a bulk order of feed and has opened an investigation. A department inspector visited the Beutler and Son site learned that the feed originated in Kansas, according to the statement, which noted that a feed sample was being analyzed at state-certified laboratories.
The department said it was working with the Kansas Department of Agriculture to investigate the company that provided the feed. The company that provided the feed has not been identified because of the ongoing investigation, Stewart said. Dead cattle and high blood pressure: Wolf depredation takes toll on Colorado ranchers Dr.
Gregg VeneKlasen, of the Timber Creek Veterinary Hospital, the Beutlers' veterinarian, declined to comment on the deaths other than to call it a "tragedy." Beutler and Son was founded in 1929 as Beutler Brothers near Elk City, about 105 miles west of Oklahoma City, and provides stock for rodeos, including the National Finals Rodeo. The company was set to provide the majority of stock for the Elk City Rodeo on the last weekend in August, according to Elk City Rodeo board member Randy Hargis, who said the scheduled events included bareback horse riding, saddle bronc riding, bull riding and steer wrestling.
STEELE — Tornadic winds knocked nearly four dozen train cars off a track in North Dakota, part of a storm system that spurred reports of five tornadoes across the Dakotas. BNSF Railway spokesperson Kendall Sloan said a train was stopped due to a tornado warning on the night of Aug. 28 near the town of Steele, North Dakota, when high winds caused 43 empty coal cars to derail.
No one was hurt, and no hazardous materials were in the cars, Sloan said in an email. BNSF cleanup crews were at the site the next day. Fight over fracking near Aurora Reservoir erupts The National Weather Service in Bismarck, North Dakota, confirmed on Aug.
29 that a tornado touched down near Steele around 8 p.m. the night before.
The agency said another tornado touched down at 5:40 p.m. the same day southwest of Selfridge, North Dakota, on the Standing Rock Tribal Nation.
The weather service said three potential tornadoes also were reported in north-central South Dakota on Aug. 28. No injuries were reported.
Survey crews were still working to confirm if damage in South Dakota was from tornadoes. While bad weather was generally moving out of the Dakotas, severe thunderstorms were forecast for Minnesota and parts of Iowa and Wisconsin, the weather service said. Collapse of iconic arch in Utah has some wondering if other arches are at risk | OUT WEST ROUNDUP Arizona puts abortion rights on the ballot as record number of signatures verified | OUT WEST ROUNDUP Arizona governor negotiates pause in hauling of uranium ore across Navajo Nation | OUT WEST ROUNDUP.
