July 13

On July 13, 1972, Las Vegas residents pulled out blankets they had not touched in months. The morning low hit 48 degrees Fahrenheit, a temperature that remains the coldest ever recorded in the city during July. In a month when overnight lows typically hover around 75 degrees, the desert had delivered a shock.

The record stands more than five decades later as a reminder of just how volatile desert temperatures can be. Climate records note that 1972 experienced persistent relative coolness from August onward, suggesting that July 13 may have been an early signal of an unusual weather pattern that would define the latter half of that year. The 48-degree reading represented a staggering departure from normal conditions, nearly 30 degrees below the typical July low. What makes this record particularly striking is its rarity in the context of Las Vegas summers. Daily high temperatures in July typically exceed 100 degrees with lows in the 70s, though humidity can increase markedly for several weeks each summer in association with monsoonal flow from the south. For the mercury to plunge to 48 degrees required an exceptional push of cool air into the Mojave Desert, likely from an unusually strong Pacific system sweeping southward.

The 1972 record remains untouched, a testament to just how unusual that July morning was. In an era when Las Vegas summers grow progressively hotter and the city experiences persistent warming, that 48-degree reading feels like a relic from another climate entirely.