July was the hottest month on record, fueling Arizona wildfires

13 August 2020

Published by https://www.azfamily.com

USA – PHOENIX (3TV/CBS5) — The numbers confirm what you probably already knew: it has been a hot, hot summer.According to the National Weather Service, July 2020 was the hottest month on record since records began in 1895.

Nancy Selover lives and breathes weather as the Climatologist for the state. “We are up there; it’s been pretty toasty and part of that is because we really haven’t had the rainfall. The monsoon hasn’t really kicked in yet,” said Selvoer.

The prolonged dry spells have helped promote hotter-than-normal weather. Recently, Phoenix broke the record for having the most 110 degree days in a year. Thursday marked day 37. “It’s similar to what happened in 1993, when we pretty much had almost no monsoon. That was our driest monsoon statewide,” said Selover.

And 2020 is also on track to break the driest summer record. But that’s nothing to celebrate, says Tiffany Davila with Arizona Forestry. “We haven’t had a break since the beginning of May; we’ve just been seeing fires on a daily basis,” said Davila.

Davila said  wildfires here in the state have burned more acres this year than in 2018, 2019 combined, forcing them to put fire restrictions back in place, going into effect Friday morning at 5 a.m. But some campfires are still allowed. “You can still have a camp fire if it is restricted to a developed campsite,” said Davila.

Meanwhile, Selover said people can expect at least another week of very dry heat.