Bend's Deschutes River is a big draw for local tourism.

Temperatures have never been this hot in the High Desert, but that hasn’t stopped arborists with Central Oregon Tree Experts.

The tree-trimming crews, along with other landscaping and maintenance companies, have adjusted their schedules a couple hours earlier to 6 a.m. and finished jobs before the heat of the day, which in Bend Tuesday was a high of 109 degrees.

“We are trying to get things going early,” said Brett Miller, owner of Central Oregon Tree Experts. “It’s actually pleasant at that time of day.”

Miller’s company has stayed busy through the record heat wave, which led the National Weather Service in Pendleton on Tuesday to extend an excessive heat warning for the region through the Fourth of July.

Most of the arborist jobs lately have been for fire mitigation. Miller’s crews remove dried brush and tree limbs from homes to help prevent the spread of a wildfire.

“It helps in case somebody tosses a cigarette out in your neighborhood,” Miller said. “That’s all it takes right now.”

Matt Callihan, a meteorologist with the weather service in Pendleton, said the hot temperatures and dry conditions are a perfect combination for wildfires. Callihan expects the weather service to issue a fire warning for the region due to temperatures remaining near 100 degrees through Sunday.

“As we go into the rest of the week, and especially the holiday weekend, we really want to stress the importance of staying mindful about how dry and hot it is and how that will stay the course through the holiday,” Callihan said.

While temperatures will remain blistering through Sunday, the historic heat appears to have peaked Tuesday, Callihan said. By 3 p.m. temperatures reached 111 degrees in Redmond, 108 degrees in Bend, 108 degrees in Prineville, 107 degrees in Madras, 103 degrees in La Pine and 102 degrees in Sisters.

Temperatures are expected to drop to 100 across the region through the rest of the week.

The weather service is still determining which temperatures are all-time records in the region, but meteorologists are confident that some are the highest ever recorded. Specifically, temperatures recorded at the Redmond Municipal Airport on Monday and Tuesday are record-breaking.

The airport recorded high temperatures of 110 degrees Monday and 111 Tuesday, which are now the two highest temperatures ever recorded in Redmond, Callihan said. The temperatures broke the previous high of 108 degrees on Aug. 7, 1972, according to weather service data.

But breaking records is just part of the story.

“This is the first time we have experienced these hot temperatures this time of year,” Callihan said. “Most of the time we hit triple digits later in the summer. We are seeing them now, and we are seeing them prolonged.”

Shannon Harlin, owner of Dakine Grindz, a Hawaiian shaved ice cart in Bend, has been happy to offer some relief to people during the heat wave.

Harlin’s cart on Galveston Avenue has been noticeably busier, especially between 8 p.m. and when the cart closes at 9 p.m.

“Usually it kind of dies down around 7 p.m. or 8 p.m.,” Harlin said. “But not lately. Definitely our busiest time is when people can actually bear coming out.”

During the past week, many Dakine Grindz customers have come from floating the Deschutes River and walked to the shaved ice cart, three blocks from the river. Harlin said she mostly sees families and large groups of people who braved the hot weather and needed an iced treat.

“The majority of our customers come in their swimsuits,” Harlin said. “It’s kind of their routine.”