The MSC Meraviglia is seen off the coast on March 26, 2020 in Miami Beach, Florida. (Photo: AFP) 

While a heat wave was predicted to hit the western United States on the Labor Day weekend, meteorologists said a number of major cities in the region had experienced scorching August with record high average temperatures.

As extreme heat hit parts of the country throughout the summer, the west, especially southwest, had seen the brunt of the record breaking heat, reported Weather Nation TV, a Colorado-based weather information and news platform, on Saturday.

The data showed that the average temperature in Las Vegas reached 95.6 degrees Fahrenheit (35.3 degrees Celsius) in August, while the figures in Phoenix of Arizona, Palm Spring of California, Denver of Colorado and Salt Lake City of Utah, were recorded as 99.1, 97.3, 77 and 83 degrees Fahrenheit respectively, or 37.3, 36.3, 25 and 28.3 degrees Celsius.

Each of these cities' average temperature in August was at least 5 degrees Fahrenheit (2.8 degrees Celsius) above the "normal" August average temperatures, the report said.

The report said, Phoenix, capital city of Arizona state, topped out at or above 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43.3 degrees Celsius) 22 times in August, smashing the old record of the number of days at or above 110 degrees Fahrenheit in one month.

Several large, stagnant high pressures and upper level ridges, set up in the southwest this summer, have contributed to the heat, the report explained.