Phoenix officially records hottest month ever, sets national record for July 2023

PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) -- July 2023 will go down in the history book as the hottest month ever in Phoenix and the hottest month ever recorded in a US city, according to the state’s climatologist.

Arizona State Climatologist Dr. Erinanne Saffell says Phoenix broke the national hottest month record set by Lake Havasu in July 1996. During that month, the Arizona city’s average monthly temperature was 102.2. Phoenix’s average monthly temperature was 102.7 in July 2023, half a degree above the Lake Havasu record. Since this is a U.S. city record, Death Valley isn’t included in these stats.

“I think beyond the Phoenix metropolitan area, many people in the Southwest are going to remember this July as the hottest July on record for them,” Saffell said.

Our average high was 114.7 and our average low was 90.8 for the month. Phoenix broke many heat records in July, including the most consecutive days with morning lows in the 90s. Sky Harbor recorded a 16-day stretch of morning lows in the 90s.

“I think it’s important to recognize how that built up so we had that really strong ridge of high pressure that impacted more than just the Phoenix metropolitan area. The Southwest was impacted as well. We need that ridge of high pressure in Arizona to bring us our thunderstorms, but we had a delayed monsoon,” Saffell said.

Saffell says the urban heat island in the Phoenix metro also played a role since it doesn’t allow us to cool off overnight. Phoenix also recorded 3 days of 119 temps last month and 4 days of 118. In fact, 17 days in July were at or above 115, but don’t expect August to be much cooler. Thirty days in July recorded highs of at least 110 degrees.

“It still looks when we’re looking at that long-term trend to be warmer and drier this summer,” Saffell added.

As of Monday morning, Arizona’s Family First Alert Weather 7-day forecast shows 6 of the next 7 days at 110+.

See a spelling or grammatical error in our story? Please click here to report it.

Do you have a photo or video of a breaking news story? Send it to us here with a brief description.

Copyright 2023 KTVK/KPHO. All rights reserved.