For the 2.3 million people who call this valley home, the dangerous elements are harder to ignore. When temperatures climb, shadeless streets are hot enough to cause second-degree burns in seconds.
This June was the city’s hottest on record. In July, things got even worse: the city experienced a record seven days at 115˚F (46.1˚C) or higher and set a new all-time high of 120˚F (48.9˚C).
The heat is just a signal of what’s to come. Temperatures in Las Vegas are rising faster than almost anywhere else in the US.
Meanwhile, Clark county, where Las Vegas is located, is bursting at the seams. The region is among the fastest-growing metro areas in the US. Roughly 2 million people have moved here over the last 50 years, with nearly a million more expected by 2060.
To accommodate them, the county has thrown its support behind a federal bill that would open up 25,000 acres of the surrounding desert for housing and commercial development. The county also has plans for a new airport, slated for completion in 2037, that would pave over thousands more acres of arid landscape near the California border.
Dozens of unhoused people died in the heat last year, and many of them, Lacey said, weren’t included in official fatality counts. He knows of at least 62 people and that doesn’t include others who got swept away by water in the tunnels.
This year the heat was worse – and while the numbers haven’t been released yet, many fear this July, too, will be brutal.