The city also has a “Cool Callers” program with volunteers dialing vulnerable residents who ask to be checked on during hot periods.Įven the Phoenix Zoo is taking measures to cool off the monkeys, big cats and rhinos, spraying them with water, delivering frozen treats, and providing shaded areas and cooled water pools.Įxtreme heat deaths are a global problem. The city of Phoenix's Office of Heat Response and Mitigation has opened summertime shelters for homeless people, operates cooling centers in libraries and other community spaces to help people get out of the sun and distributes bottled water, hats and sunscreen. “Heat is harder to see and especially affects people who are socially isolated or living on the margins.” “Hurricanes, flooding and wildfires are very dramatic,” said Khatana. Older people and those with diabetes, obesity, heart disease and other serious health conditions are most at risk, he said. Khatana participated in research published last year that suggested that from 20 between 13,000 to 20,000 adult deaths were linked to extreme heat, about half due to heart disease. Sameed Khatana, a staff cardiologist at the Philadelphia VA Medical Center and assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine, said deaths in which heat contributed significantly to fatalities from causes like heart failure should also be considered to provide a more complete picture. So far this season, there have been six heat-associated deaths in Maricopa County, home to nearly 4.5 million people.ĭr. The county's Office of the Medical Examiner updates suspected and confirmed heat-associated deaths every week through the warm season, which runs from May through October. Located in the Sonoran Desert, Maricopa County counts not just deaths due to exposure but also deaths in which heat is among several major contributing factors, including heart attacks and strokes. The county tallied 425 heat-associated deaths last year, a 25% increase over 2021.
“That means a lot of people will continue to die.”Ĭounting heat deaths has become a science in Arizona's Maricopa County, which includes metro Phoenix. "Arizona already understands heat to a certain extent, but it's getting hotter for us, too," said Russell. Dangerously hot conditions are forecast from Saturday through Tuesday, including temperatures of 107-115 degrees (41.6-46.1 Celsius) across south-central Arizona. Phoenix, the hottest large city in America, faces an excessive heat warning headed into the weekend. “Heat waves are the deadliest because they affect such large areas and can go on for days or weeks,” said Joellen Russell, a climate scientist who teaches at the University of Arizona in Tucson and is currently on a Fulbright scholarship in Wellington, New Zealand. Planting more trees to increase shade in cities and investing in green technology like heat pumps for home cooling and heating could help, Basu said.Įxtreme heat already is the deadliest of all weather events in the United States, including hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires and flooding. Gaurab Basu, a primary care physician and the director of education and policy at the Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment at Harvard T.H.
WEATHER PHOENIX HOUR BY HOUR HOW TO
Now we need to learn how to prepare for heat,” said Dr. “Here in Boston we prepare for snowstorms.
each summer without more action to combat climate change that has pushed up temperatures, making people especially vulnerable in areas unaccustomed to warm weather. Scientists and medical experts say such deaths caused by extreme heat will only increase in the U.S.
The other two fatalities were Florida residents who died while hiking in extreme heat at Big Bend National Park. The dead ranged in age from 60 to 80 years old, and many had other health conditions, according to the county medical examiner. Heat index levels of up to 112 degrees (44 Celsius) were forecast in parts of Florida over the next few days.Įleven of the heat-related deaths in Texas occurred in Webb County, which includes Laredo. PHOENIX (AP) - Heat waves like the one that engulfed parts of parts of the South and Midwest and killed more than a dozen people are becoming more common, and experts say the extreme weather events, which claim more lives than hurricanes and tornadoes, will likely increase in the future.Ī heat dome that pressured the Texas power grid and killed 13 people there and another in Louisiana pushed eastward Thursday and was expected to be centered over the mid-South by the weekend.
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