By Kathryn Reed

California, Nevada, Arizona and Utah are sizzling, with record temps breaking all over the place – including the Lake Tahoe area.

And the mercury is going to continue to climb for a couple more days. A heat advisory remains in effect until Wednesday at 10pm for much of Western Nevada.

Truckee River outside Tahoe City on June 29 is full of rafters . Photo/Kathryn Reed

South Lake Tahoe broke records Friday and Saturday. Both days it was 89 degrees. The old record was 87 for both days, set in 2010 and 1972, respectively.

Truckee broke a record June 28 by five degrees; the new record is 94, the old from 2010 was 89. On June 29, Truckee tied the 2010 record of 88.

“Right by the shore there in Tahoe City it’s getting numbers in the mid-80s, but the records are in the upper 80s. Mainly it looks like inland away from lake is getting records,” Shane Snyder, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Reno told Lake Tahoe News on Sunday.

He said more records are likely to fall today.

“That will get destroyed,” Snyder said of the June 30 87-degree record for Truckee.

South Lake Tahoe’s record for June 30 is 88, and the forecast is for closer to 90.

To the south and east of the Lake Tahoe Basin there is a chance of isolated thunderstorms today. Those will be moving into Tahoe on Monday and Tuesday.

While Las Vegas, Phoenix and Death Valley are always hot this time of year, they are redefining what hot means. It was 115 in Vegas on Saturday, when normal is about 103. The one death from the heat wave was reported in Vegas. A man in his 80s was found dead inside his home that did not have air conditioning.

Barton Memorial Hospital treated one person for dehydration on Saturday.

Death can occur when body temps hit 106 to 107 degrees.

Leaving pets and children in vehicles can also have deadly consequences. A Bay Area woman was arrested last week on animal cruelty charges for allegedly leaving her dog, which died, inside a parked vehicle.

While beaches in the basin have been full and rafters are flocking to the Truckee River, the water temp is still chilly – especially farther out in the lake and a foot below the surface. This is why jumping into the water without a life jacket can pose a risk of hypothermia.

Sunscreen should be reapplied, and reapplied again – on adults and kids on all exposed skin. Drink plenty of water. Alcohol and heat can be a bad combo.

South Lake Tahoe police officers have been interacting with a greater number of people lately.

“The people we were contacting seemed to be drinking a little more than usual. They required being arrested instead of a move along thing,” Police Chief Brian Uhler told Lake Tahoe News. On the day shift Saturday,  there were eight arrests and last night there were five. This is higher than usual. Most were for alcohol and domestic violence related issues.

Uhler expects officers to continue to be busy as people living where temps are in the triple digits continue to flock to the basin, which just adds to the number of people in town.