Tucson heat breaks even more weather records

Tucson’s triple-digit days this year have toppled even more long-time heat records.

This decade is, already, the new record holder for most October triple-digit temperature occurrences, according to a post this weekend by the National Weather Service in Tucson on its official X page.

For the decade so far, there have already been 12 October days that have reached at least 100 degrees. The previous decade record of 8 triple-digit days in October was set by the 1990s, the weather service says.

Before that was the 1910s. That’s when there were five October days of at least 100 degrees, the agency said.

Another way to put this data into a historical context: the weather service here found that in the first 91 years of Tucson weather data (from 1895 to 1986) there were 15 October days that reached 100 degrees. From 1987 to 2019, or in the next 32 years, there were 13 such occurrences.

In a separate post to its official X account Friday, the weather service in Tucson said 2023 has also set a new record for the most days “between” its first and last 100-degree days within a calendar year.

The first 100-degree day this year was April 30. The most recent triple-digit day was Friday. The 172-day span between the two is a record. The previous record for such a span was 169 days, which was set in 2020.

Back to homepage

Subscriber Login

Keep reading with a digital access subscription.

Subscribe now

Extra hot summer heat coupled with the pcoming El Niño have played a large role in October’s recent heat streak, said Dalton Vanstratten, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Tucson.

“A lot of has to do with the weather patterns we’re seeing and how anomalously strong those weather patterns are, also over the summer with all the stretches of 100-degree days we’ve seen and reaching some of those records,” he said. “El Niño is definitely a factor I can think of that’s playing a role in these hotter years.”

The hottest Oct. 21 on-record in Tucson was set in 2016 when it reached 96 degrees.

Vanstratten says Sunday is expected to break that record with a high of 99 degrees, but there’s also an outside chance the city’s 100-degree stretch increases to one more day.

Heading into next weekend however, the weather service is forecasting for some late-week showers and a break from the high-heat.

The weather service forecasts for a high of 90 degrees on Monday with a 20 percent chance of rain.

Tuesday and Wednesday will both see highs staying below 80 degrees, the weather service says. The chance of rain is 50 percent on Tuesday and 40 percent on Wednesday.