Hottest place in Arizona (Tempe, Yuma: vs, activity, title)

[AZguy99]

I love extremely hot summers and Arizona is a great place for that. However, I am wondering which place is the hottest place in Arizona. There are several locations that contend for that title, like Yuma, Parker, Lake Havasu City, and Bullhead City. All of those locations have been known to get up to 120 degrees or higher in the summer, but some of them are more likely to reach that mark than the others due to either lower elevation, higher record highs, or less monsoonal activity, which means lower humidity.

So the question is, which place in Arizona has the hottest summers?

[Hoonose]

1/2 way from Havasu to Bullhead there is Devil's Elbow on the Colorado River. Hottest spot I've been to. I had an under the console temp gauge on my boat pegged way past 120 degrees.

Havasu and BHC have about the same summer heat, humidity and monsoons.

[Fiddlehead]

Interesting, I was just thinking about these places, and they are all scorching, of course. My hypothesis is that the hottest spot would be somewhere at very low elevation (Colorado River Valley), but at the northern edge of the main monsoon area. That would point to Bullhead City. And along that same trajectory you have Death Valley a bit further north, so I think that is the "zone." Interestingly, Bullhead is measurably hotter than Yuma in July (112 vs 105), which suggest that Gulf of California moisture at Yuma does temper the max temps a little.

[Hoonose]

Havasu has the highest average daily low of any built up area in the US.

[observer53]

Does it really matter which is hottest statistically?

[FVWinters]

On June 29, 1994 Lake Havasu City boiled all the way up to 128 degrees (some 53+ in Celsius). To my knowledge the only other inhabited spot with an unambiguously accurate and valid temperature reading that high was Mohenjo Daro in Pakistan.
LHC is also one of only three first order weather stations (outside of Furnace Creek in Death Valley) to have ever had an average temperature pass 100 degrees - for an entire month.
Being a heat lover is one thing but I hope you are seeking this information for avoidance purposes - Kingman is plenty hot enough...

[AZguy99]

Originally Posted by observer53

Does it really matter which is hottest statistically?

Yes I'm just wondering which one it is. I am aware however that Lake Havasu City recorded the all time high temperature in Arizona, but I'm wondering which one has the highest AVERAGE summer temps.

[AZguy99]

Originally Posted by Fiddlehead

Interesting, I was just thinking about these places, and they are all scorching, of course. My hypothesis is that the hottest spot would be somewhere at very low elevation (Colorado River Valley), but at the northern edge of the main monsoon area. That would point to Bullhead City. And along that same trajectory you have Death Valley a bit further north, so I think that is the "zone." Interestingly, Bullhead is measurably hotter than Yuma in July (112 vs 105), which suggest that Gulf of California moisture at Yuma does temper the max temps a little.

Bullhead City is definitely hotter than Yuma on average in July due to humidity. As an FYI, the average July high in Yuma is 107 actually.

[wit-nit]

Originally Posted by AZguy99

Yes I'm just wondering which one it is. I am aware however that Lake Havasu City recorded the all time high temperature in Arizona, but I'm wondering which one has the highest AVERAGE summer temps.

Arizona Average Temperatures - Year to Date, Averages by City

[Special_Finder]

The places with the hottest summers in Arizona are located on the Lower Colorado River Valley (LCRV), especially on the northern and central part, whose the desert areas mainly have a very low elevation. Lake Havasu City and Bullhead City are certainly the places with the most extreme heat in United States behind Death Valley of course, in terms of maximum summer averages highs but also in terms of all-time records highs which can even rival the ones recorded in Furnace Creek. On the Arizona part of the LCRV, the maximum summer averages highs are 110.6 for Lake Havasu City, 112.2 for Bullhead City, 108.3 for Quartzsite, 106.8 for Yuma, 108 for Parker and 109 for Blythe. As well, Lake Havasu City and Bullhead City have respectively recorded all-time records highs of 128 and 127, which are the highest ones in the country but again behind Death Valley. I don't really think that Bullhead City is hotter during summer months than Lake Havasu City but the actual averages seem to say the contrary.