Death Valley Hits 130 Degrees as Heat Wave Sweeps the West

The temperature was forecast to be even hotter over the weekend as another “heat dome” forced Western states to set up cooling centers and issue motel vouchers.

FURNACE CREEK, Calif. — For Gary Bryant, the tenth-of-a-mile walk from his modular home to the air-conditioned restaurant where he was working on Saturday was “quite enough” time outside. Mr. Bryant, 64, knows the risks of summer temperatures in California’s Death Valley. He once collapsed under a palm tree from heat exhaustion and had to crawl toward a hose spigot to douse himself with water. Mr. Bryant has lived and worked in Death Valley for 30 years, happy to balance the brutal summer heat with the soaring mountain vistas, but even he admits that the highs of recent years — the temperature soared to 130 degrees on Friday and was forecast to be even hotter on Saturday and Sunday — were testing his limits.