Ask any longtime Phoenix resident about the hottest day in the city’s scorching summer history, chances are they’ll easily recite it from memory.
Like residents still calling it Metrocenter even though the mall is gone, or slipping and calling it “Golf N’ Stuff” instead of “Castles N’ Coasters.” The number “122” is etched into Phoenix weather lore.
Longtime residents just know, which is how most will come up instantly with 122 degrees marking the city’s hottest day ever, and will probably even recall it happening in June of 1990. It was indeed June 26, 1990, when the mercury set an all-time record by hitting 122.
Less well-known is the city’s second hottest day ever recorded, yet that number is only a single degree off. Back on July 28, 1995, Phoenix didn’t catch the record, but did reach 121 degrees.
Perhaps what makes the 121 less memorable is — unlike June of 1990 — July 1995 wasn’t all that bad, relatively speaking.
Consider that the city was already cooking before the record-high 122. The day before, on June 25, 1990, Phoenix reached 120 degrees which, for a day, set a record. Also stealing that 1995 spotlight was the blistering run Phoenix endured in 2023. In the span of seven days, the city reached 119 degrees three times, all of which remain tied for the city’s fourth highest temperature ever recorded, per the National Weather Service’s official gauge at Sky Harbor International Airport.
The clusters of record-setting heat in 1990 and 2023 packed much more of a punch than the run to 121 degrees in 1995.
According to the National Weather Service’s Phoenix station, on July 23, 1995, five days before the 121, the city “only” reached a high of 105 degrees, which was below normal in terms of average temperature. And on July 16 that year — some 12 days before the 121 — the high in Phoenix was a mere 94 degrees.
Things did warm up on the way to that 121, though.
Two days before, on July 26, the high reached 116 degrees as a prelude of what was to come. However, by the time July drew to a close in 1995, despite the punishing 121 which still stands today as the second hottest day in Phoenix history, July 1995 closed overall at one degree below normal in terms of average monthly July temperature.
“We didn’t get any measurable rain at the airport, but nonetheless how cool it was kind of tells us that it probably clouded over and maybe we saw some rain activity either that day or the day before,” Ryan Worley, meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Phoenix office, said Monday while looking back at the July 1995 conditions that led to the second hottest day in history during an otherwise moderate July.
“But then as we progress further into later that month, we likely either dried out … because from the looks of it we measured no rainfall at the airport through a good portion of the back half of July. We were likely very dry during that time, and that high was very strong.”
Currently, Phoenix remains under an excessive heat warning with triple-digit temperatures in the forecast all this week.
Early Monday morning, at 1:13 a.m., rain was measured for the first time at Sky Harbor since the monsoon opened on June 15, albeit in a miniscule amount. The rain gauge showed an accumulation early this morning of 1/100th of an inch, or 0.01 inches, for the first official Phoenix rainfall of the 2026 monsoon.
Heat relief sites, including cooling centers, respite centers and hydration stations, are established throughout Maricopa County during the summer through Sept. 30 for those who do not have access to indoor cool environments.
Steve Stockmar can be reached at sstockmar@iniusa.org. Please submit comments at yourvalley.net/letters or email them to AzOpinions@inusua.org. We are committed to publishing a wide variety of reader opinions, as long as they meet our Civility Guidelines.
Steve Stockmar News Editor | Sun Life Magazine & Arts & Entertainment
YourValley.net
Meet Steve Steve Stockmar joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2017, and has been an Arizona journalist for almost 30 years. He serves as editor of Sun Life Magazine and contributes to West Valley communities where he focuses mostly on arts & culture, education, and profiles of neighbors making a difference.
Community: Every season Steve serves as a “buddy” with the Miracle League of Arizona in Scottsdale, has volunteered his time with Family Promise in Glendale, and previously served on the Ghostlight Theatre board in Sun City West.
Education: Graduated from Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff with a Journalism major and English minor.
Random Fact: Steve once won a 50-player live Texas Hold ’Em poker tournament.
Hobbies: Anguishing over his beloved Chicago Cubs and Bears; listening to Beatles and Grateful Dead music.
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