Extreme heat scorches Southwest
PHOENIX -- Triple-digit temperatures are sweeping parts of the Southwest this weekend and leading some people in Arizona to fall ill from the sweltering heat.
Phoenix has broken a hot-weather record set nearly 50 years ago on this date, hitting 117 degrees amid a heat wave boiling parts of the Southwest.
The National Weather Service says temperatures climbed quickly Sunday, with the high surpassing 115 before 1 p.m.
Forecasters say some areas could see a high of up to 120. The previous record was 115 back in 1968. A strengthening ridge of high pressure lifting out of Mexico is on course to scorch portions of Arizona and southeast California on Sunday and Monday.
Firefighters in north Phoenix rescued a 28-year-old woman who became unresponsive while mountain biking with friends in the morning. She was flown to a hospital, where she died.
Phoenix fire officials say the unidentified woman started biking with two friends around 6 a.m. Sunday and stopped breathing a few hours later. Firefighters say her condition appeared heat-related.
The woman was an avid hiker and personal trainer who had no known medical issues.
In neighboring Pinal County, a 25-year-old Phoenix man died Saturday of heat exposure while hiking.
Sheriff Paul Babeu said the incident was one of three heat-related emergency calls within a four-hour period on Saturday in the Superstition Wilderness, CBS affiliate KPHO reported.
The Phoenix Fire Department responded to more than 30 heat-related calls Saturday, a number the department says is higher than usual.
On average, 126 deaths from extreme heat events occur each year in Arizona, KPHO reported.
A strengthening ridge of high pressure lifting out of Mexico is on course to scorch portions of Arizona and southeast California on Sunday and Monday.
People in Southern California are posting competing photos on Facebook and Instagram of their soaring thermometers as the last day of spring brought summerlike temperatures.
The National Weather Service says Burbank and Glendale, just north of downtown Los Angeles, soared past 100 degrees by midday Sunday, with Burbank hitting a record 105.
The heat was no help to firefighters working to put out a brush fire in a LA neighborhood, where densely packed homes were briefly in danger before it was knocked down.
Further northwest in the San Fernando Valley, some thermometers were reading close to 110 degrees, and Palm Springs in the inland desert hit 115.
The heat spurred state regulators to urge residents to voluntarily cut their consumption of electricity Monday. It didn't bring the rolling blackouts that Southern Californians have been told to expect after a massive natural gas leak.