Phoenix sets heat record 19 days of temperature above 43ºC

US city also smashes records of overnight temperatures and not breaching lows of 32ºC for nine days

At Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona, a billboard updates the time and record high temperature, which translates to 45ºC. AP

Temperatures in the Arizona city of Phoenix hit 43ºC or higher for the 19th day in a row on Tuesday, Bloomberg News reported, setting a record for the longest streak with heat at those extremes.

The previous record was 18 days in 1974, according to the National Weather Service.

It is likely the record streak will be extended this week, with forecasts calling for a high of 46ºC on Wednesday, and almost 47ºC on Thursday and Friday.

No other major city – defined as the 25 most populous in the US – has had any stretch of 43ºC days or 32ºC nights longer than Phoenix, weather historian Christopher Burt of the Weather Company told AP.

“When you have several million people subjected to that sort of thermal abuse, there are impacts,” NOAA Climate Analysis Group director Russell Vose, who chairs a committee on national records, told AP.

Human-caused climate change and a newly formed El Nino are combining to shatter heat records worldwide, scientists say.

The southern US has baked under high temperatures for weeks, which has toppled records around the region, endangered human life and taxed energy grids.

With Tuesday’s low of 34.5ºC, the city has had nine straight days of temperatures that did not go below 32ºC at night, breaking another record, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Matt Salerno.

Mr Salerno said it was “pretty miserable when you don’t have any recovery overnight".

On Monday, the city also set a record for its hottest overnight low temperature, 35ºC. During the day, the heat built up so early that the city hit 43ºC a couple of minutes before noon.