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All-time heat record set on Tuesday in Blythe, CA

 United States

Michael Martinez drinks a bottle of water at a Salvation Army hydration station in an effort to beat rising temperatures in Phoenix on Monday, July 20, 2016. Phoenix set daily record highs of 118°F on Sunday and 116°F on Monday, which were the earliest readings above 115°F in city history. Photo: Ross D. Franklin, AP

The atmospheric oven remains set on “high” across the Desert Southwest, where a fresh batch of records was seared into the weather annals on Tuesday. Chief among them was the 124°F at Blythe, CA, breaking the city’s all-time high of 123°F set most recently on July 28, 1995. Records in Blythe go back to 1948. Another standout in the Lower Colorado Valley was the 125°F reading at Needles, CA, the highest temperature ever observed there in June (previous record of 123°F was on June 29, 2013)