Updated March 20, 2026, 9:56 a.m. ET
A small Arizona neighborhood broke the record for highest temperature ever recorded in March within the United States, reaching a scorching 110 levels on March 19 amid an early heat wave in the Southwest.
The temperature reached 110 levels on March 19 close to Martinez Lake, a recreation neighborhood in southwestern Arizona, about 45 minutes north of Yuma, the National Weather Service said.
The earlier March temperature record was first set in 1954 in Rio Grande, Texas, at 108 levels. That record was additionally matched throughout this warmth wave on March 18 close to North Shore, California, in response to the climate service.
The information comes as Arizona, California and different Southwestern states have confronted an unprecedented early warmth wave for a number of days. The warmth is the results of a high-pressure system spinning throughout the West, inflicting “an expansive dome of unusually hot temperatures,” the climate service has stated.
The ensuing temperatures are unprecedented.
More than 18 million Americans stay beneath excessive warmth warnings the morning of March 20 throughout Southern California, southern Nevada, and far of Arizona. Millions extra have been beneath warmth advisories.
Heat wave shatters quite a few day by day, month-to-month data
The warmth wave that set in earlier this week has already shattered day by day excessive temperature data in cities all through the Southwest and even some all-time March data.
Temperatures on March 19 in Phoenix soared to 105 degrees, breaking the record of 97 for the identical date in 2017, in response to the climate service. With an excessive warmth warning in impact for metro Phoenix, temperatures jumped into the three-digit vary by round 1 p.m. The excessive temperature in Phoenix was round 25 levels above regular. The first 105-degree day of the 12 months, on common, usually happens on May twenty second, the climate service posted on X.
Phoenix would not normally attain 100 levels for the primary time in a 12 months till about May 10, although earlier than this 12 months, its earliest-recorded 100-degree day in a year was March 26, 1988.
In the Los Angeles area, daily records dating back decades have been damaged for the reason that warmth wave started. In Downtown Los Angeles on March 17, the excessive bought to 98 levels, smashing the record of 94 set over a century in the past in 1914.
Cities in California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado, Oregon, Idaho and Wyoming have damaged all-time March records.
Contributing: Sarah Henry, the Arizona Republic
