D’oh! Of course it is.
If you’re not from the US, the difference might not be all that obvious. In fact, if you’re not from the Western part of the US, the difference might not be all that obvious!
This has happened twice in twenty-five years.
[ul]
[li]June 20, 1990 when the all-time record high of 122 was set[/li][li]June 20, 2017 when 119 was reached[/li][li]Miss ya, Opal[/li][/ul]
To be complete, the previous couple days to this year’s incident were setting record highs for the date. The first incident was the whole airport being shut down while the latter incident was just one airline (American) cancelling flights. I wouldn’t worry about it.
Notice that both incidents were in June, which is actually the hottest time of the year for us. August we will be deep into our monsoon season so the temperatures will be less but the humidity will be more, adding to the misery. If you want to do something outdoors like hike or play a round of golf (it’s really cheap in August) be done by 8am You can venture out after sunset but probably won’t like it much.
During the day I would stick to indoor pursuits. The Heard Museum is our most unique one, along with the Musical Instrument Museum. For more ordinary art, the Phoenix Art Museum and SMOCA (mentioned above) are both good. For non-artsy stuff, the Arizona Science Center and the Arizona Museum of Natural History (two towns over in Mesa) are also good.
Sadly, I’m there midweek.
I certainly have memory of individual airlines cancelling much more recently than that, though. Here’s one from 2013, where 18 US Airways flights were cancelled due to heat. I’m almost certain it happened in 2015, as well. But, no, not exactly “common.”
Well, I survived Phoenix. It was really to hot for me. On the first day I visited the Art Museum and the Native American museum nearby. I then went for a wander and ended up quite dehydrated, without my realising it as I had a half full water bottle with me. But on entering a diner(?) I downed over a pint of water. The second day I started off at the butterfly centre, had lunch overlooking the dolphinarium, then visited the aquarium, and finally back to the butterfly centre. I skipped the botanical garden as it was just too hot.
Then it was an early night for an 03:00 start and I’m now in Washington.
Quartz melts at 1670 °C - Phoenix should have been a piece of cake for you!
Glad you survived.