Good morning, Arizona. Here’s what you need to know to start your day.

As for the weather, after a surprisingly cool day for mid June on Monday, things will start to warm up quickly and end up in a full blown heat wave starting this weekend into next week, according to the National Weather Service. It will be warming each day with highs reaching near normals by Wednesday and nearing 110 degrees across our warmest desert locations on Thursday.

High today near 97, Clear tonight with lows around 65. On Wednesday, sunny, 105. Clear Wednesday night, with overnight lows around 70. Sunny and 109 on Thursday.

CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE MONSOON IN ARIZONA

Arizona could experience heavier monsoon rains in the coming decades, according to the author of a new study examining rainfall changes around the world.  

The study, published in the journal Science Advances, does not detail specific rainfall changes in Arizona.

But Aaron Putnam, its lead author and a geologist at the Climate Change Institute at the University of Maine, speculates that while there could be an “invigoration of the North American monsoon,” a warmer planet might also lead to a drop in precipitation during the wintertime, potentially reducing the snowfall that helps replenish water-storage reservoirs. 

HIKERS RESCUED IN FOUR PEAKS AREA

Five hikers who got lost overnight in the Four Peaks area were rescued by the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue unit on Monday, officials said.

The group was hiking northeast of the Phoenix area on Sunday when they got lost and ran out of food and water, Sheriff’s Sgt. Joaquin Enriquez said.

The group ended up staying in the mountain area overnight and was able to contact MCSO around 6 a.m.

A helicopter dropped water packs to the hikers Monday morning, Enriquez said.

A rescue helicopter could not land on the mountainous terrain, so MCSO Search and Rescue hiked two miles to reach rthem. 

WRONG-WAY PROJECTION PROJECT OK’D

The Arizona Transportation Board approved a $3.7 million plan to install a thermal-detection system on Interstate 17 in Phoenix to help prevent wrong-way drivers.

The action came a week after Gov. Doug Ducey called for stepped-up action to help deter wrong-way drivers on Valley freeways. That came a day after two people were killed in a wrong-way crash on a State Route 51 transition ramp connecting to Interstate 10 in Phoenix.

WHAT WE WANT TOP LEARN FROM SESSIONS TODAY

Attorney General Jeff Sessions is set to testify publicly on Tuesday before the Senate Intelligence Committee.

There are three things the public wants to know.

First, tell us about Sergey Kislyak. 

Meanwhile, watch live video of Sessions’ testimony. Coverage starts at 11 a.m., Arizona time.

 

 

SALTON SEA WITHERS; AS CALIF. SEEKS ANSWERS

California’s largest lake is drying up.

The Salton Sea has been shrinking for years, and fish and birds have been dying. The dry lakebed already spews toxic dust into the air, threatening a region with hundreds of thousands of people. And the crisis is about to get much worse.

The water flowing into the Salton Sea will be cut dramatically at the end of this year, causing the lake to shrink faster than ever and sending more dust blowing through low-income, largely Latino farming communities.

 

TODAY IN HISTORY

• On June 13, 1842, Queen Victoria became the first British monarch to ride on a train, traveling from Slough Railway Station to Paddington in 25 minutes.
• In 1927, aviation hero Charles Lindbergh was honored with a ticker-tape parade in New York City.
• In 1935, James Braddock claimed the title of world heavyweight boxing champion from Max Baer in a 15-round fight in Queens, New York. “Becky Sharp,” the first movie photographed in “three-strip” Technicolor, opened in New York.
• In 1966, the Supreme Court ruled in Miranda v. Arizona that criminal suspects had to be informed of their constitutional right to consult with an attorney and to remain silent.
• In 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson nominated Solicitor-General Thurgood Marshall to become the first black justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.
• In 1977, James Earl Ray, the convicted assassin of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., was recaptured following his escape three days earlier from a Tennessee prison.
• In 1992, Democratic presidential candidate Bill Clinton stirred controversy during an appearance before the Rainbow Coalition by criticizing rap singer Sister Souljah for making remarks that he said were “filled with hatred” toward whites.
• In 1997, a jury voted unanimously to give Timothy McVeigh the death penalty for the Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people. The Chicago Bulls captured their fifth professional basketball championship in seven years with a 90-86 victory over the Utah Jazz in Game 6.

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