This weekend's extreme heat is derailing the Valley's prime event and tourism season.

Why it matters: We only get so many mild weekends a year, which is why many of our festivals and outdoor activities are crammed into March.

• Now the record-breaking heat wave has organizers scrambling to salvage them.

The money quote: "We're starting to lose any type of seasonality [in the Southwest]. It's just winter or summer," David Ott, co-CEO of The Studio North America, told Axios.

⚾ Spring Training

The Cactus League, in its final weekend, pushed back the start time for 11 games to after 6pm.

• Yes, but: Several games, including two D-Backs matchups, will continue with start times between 11am and 1pm.
• Full schedule here.

🎡 Ostrich festival

The East Valley's annual carnival, which moved to Rawhide Western Town this year, will provide additional shaded areas, misting zones, indoor cool-down spaces and complimentary water for its second weekend.

✈️ Luke Days

Luke Air Force Base's biennial air show, which typically brings more than 300,000 people to the West Valley, will proceed as planned.

• You can bring a clear water bottle and don't forget sunscreen.

👰‍♀️ Weddings

Couples pay a premium to rent venues in March to avoid heat like this. Instead, they're looking for industrial fans, buying umbrellas and moving festivities indoors, Abby Barenholtz of Copper Blossom Events told Axios.

• She's coordinating a wedding at Different Pointe of View, the outdoor venue atop Hilton Phoenix Tapatio Cliffs Resort, and has moved everything but the 20-minute ceremony indoors.
• Nearly all of the guests are coming from Chicago 😬.

🏜️ Hiking

Phoenix closes popular hiking trails when the National Weather Service declares an extreme heat warning, which it has through Sunday. This is the first time it's issued one in March.

• Trails at Camelback Mountain, Phoenix Mountains Preserve and South Mountain Park and Preserve will be closed from 8am-5pm.

🌵 Desert Botanical Garden

The garden is opening earlier and closing later to encourage visitors during cooler (ha!) parts of the day,

Warn a neighbor

🐦 An Arizona House committee rejected legislation that would have made it illegal statewide to feed pigeons — Phoenix and some other cities already have bans — but lawmakers advanced plenty of other proposals this week.

🛏️ The House passed legislation allowing cities to limit the number of overnight guests at short-term rentals.

🗳️ Proposed Republican ballot measures that would prohibit voters from dropping off early ballots on Election Day passed House and Senate committees.

📸 A ballot referral to ban photo radar passed a House committee and now goes to the full chamber. If the House approves it, the proposal will go to the November ballot.

👀 House Republicans added provisions previously vetoed by Gov. Katie Hobbs, including new restrictions on food assistance and a requirement that hospitals ask patients about immigration status, to legislation authorizing the Arizona Department of Economic Security to continue operating for the next eight years, the Arizona Mirror reported.

🏛️ Voters would get to decide whether to expand the Arizona House from 60 to 90 members, with each representative elected from an individual district instead of 30 districts each electing two at-large members, under a proposal approved by Senate Republicans.

• The change wouldn't go into effect until 2042.

🚄 Arizona's auditor general would have to conduct a feasibility study, including a review of the environmental and economic impacts on local businesses, for future light rail extension proposals under a bill passed by Senate Republicans.

🎖️ Retired veterans or veterans with service-related disabilities would get free lifetime state parks passes under a bill passed by the Senate.

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The Sun Devils' turnaround season ended with a loss to Virginia in the First Four of the NCAA women's basketball tournament.

Why it matters: A win would've earned ASU a spot in the field of 64.

Driving the news: After struggling in the first half against the Cavaliers, ASU fought its way back in the second and tied it up with 41 seconds to go off a three-pointer from Marley Washenitz.

• But Virginia's Kymora Johnson responded with a three of her own, and the Cavaliers fended off ASU for a 57-55 win.
• Head coach Molly Miller didn't travel with the Sun Devils to Iowa City, Iowa, due to illness, but joined the Sun Devils in time today to be on the sidelines with her team.

The bottom line: However the game ended, the Sun Devils had a great year and earned their first March Madness appearance since 2019.

• ASU went 10-22 last season, but looks like a program on the rise after Miller's first year in Tempe.

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The Phoenix Union High School District governing board called a special meeting for next week to discuss possible renaming of Cesar Chavez High School and the designation of the district's Chavez holiday.

💲 State Treasurer Kimberly Yee is seeking proposals for changes or a possible replacement for the vendor that manages purchases for the Empowerment Scholarship Account program. (KTAR)

☪️ Tempe police are investigating the destruction of a crescent moon built on A Mountain to celebrate Ramadan. (Arizona's Family)

⚖️ Arizona was among two dozen states that sued the Trump administration over the EPA's repeal of a 2009 determination that greenhouse gases are a threat to public health. (12 News)

Take us out to the ball game, if only for this peanuts-and-Cracker-Jack-inspired milkshake and elote-covered, footlong corn dog.

The Arizona Diamondbacks unveiled their new 2026 menu items, and they're as chaotic as they are caloric. Other crazy snacks:

• 128 oz. nacho bucket;
• 18-inch baguette with chicken parmesan and hot pastrami;
• Brisket and pulled pork mac-and-cheese.

The bottom line: They need to make the stadium seats reclinable to accommodate our impending food coma.