WESTERN, U.S. - A crop of wildfires has made the western United States hot, and new weather reports suggest the region is only getting hotter. After a bit of cooling down lent some reprieve from the worst of the wildfires, meteorologists report that temperatures are set to reach near-record levels again into the coming weekend.

“As a ridge of high pressure strengthens and expands through the rest of the week and into the weekend, temperatures will rise to above normal levels across much of the West,” AccuWeather Meteorologist Ryan Adamson said. According to AccuWeather, a high pressure system brings extended periods of dry conditions and sunshine that lead to extreme heat. 

Many locales throughout the western United States are set to reach from 5 to 10 degrees higher than is typical this time of year. As reported by The Weather Channel, these highs will peak over Friday and Saturday, and will include:

• Seattle, WA - 78°
• Boise, ID - 99°
• Salt Lake City, UT - 100°
• Las Vegas, NV - 111°
• Phoenix, AZ - 108°
• Bakersfield, CA - 105°
• Fresno, CA - 104°
• Los Angeles, CA - 92°

These hot and dry conditions won't be doing any favors to firefighters combatting several blazes throughout the region. As we reported earlier this week, California was hit by two wildfires near produce hubs Kern County and Watsonville, the Schaeffer fire and Alamo fire, respectively. The state also is experiencing effects from the Wall fire to the northwest of Tahoe, California, and the Whittier fire to the northwest of Santa Barbara, while Arizona has seen fires including the Brooklyn fire to the north of Phoenix and the Frye fire to the north of Tuscon.

According to the National Interagency Fire Center, wildfires have burned through 3.7 million acres of land across the U.S. in 2017 so far.