Essential Facts on Heat Deaths Amidst Escalating Temperatures in the Western US This Summer
PHOENIX — The U.S. West is getting ready for a dangerously hot summer. Heat is thought to have killed dozens of people recently, including retirees in Oregon, a biker in Death Valley, California, and a 10-year-old boy who fell while hiking with his family on a trail in Phoenix.
Heat is the main weather-related cause of death in the United States. But because it can take months to look into possible heat deaths and different counties use different ways to count them, no one knows for sure how many people died in the current heat wave that started on July 1.
There are signs that those two weeks were especially deadly.
Scientist Joellen Russell from the University of Arizona in Tucson said Friday, “This is just a sign of things to come.” “All of these extreme weather events—floods, droughts, wildfires, heat waves, hurricanes, and thunderstorms—are caused by the extra carbon dioxide we put into the air.”
Know these things:
Where most of the deaths happened
In Santa Clara County, California, where temperatures reached the low triple digits this month because of a heat wave, 19 deaths are being looked into as possible heat-related deaths. The office of the medical examiner said that nine of the people who died were over 65 years old and four were homeless.
At least 16 people are thought to have died in Oregon because of the record-high temperatures, most of them in the metro Portland area.
The county coroner’s office in Clark County, Nevada, which includes Las Vegas, said that nine people have died this year because of the heat.
A 2-year-old girl died after being left alone in a hot car outside of Tucson, and a 4-month-old baby died after getting sick on a boat on Lake Havasu. These deaths are currently being probed in Arizona.
How hot it’s been
This month, high temperatures have broken records in the western states. On July 5, Palm Springs, California, recorded its all-time high of 124 Fahrenheit (51.1 Celsius), and on July 7, Las Vegas did the same with 120 F (48.8 C).
It was at least 115 F (46.1 C) in Las Vegas for seven days in a row during the recent heat wave, which is a record. This beats the old record of four days in a row set in July 2005, according to the National Weather Service. Since June 1, the city has set at least 18 heat marks.
An all-time high of 129 F (53.8 C) was recorded in California’s Death Valley on July 7. This tied the daily record set in 2007. A record high of 115 F (46.1 C) was reached in Phoenix on Wednesday. It tied the record set that same day in 1958 and 1934.
Five days in a row, Portland, Oregon had new daily high records until Tuesday, when it hit 104 F (40 C).
Why the number of deaths is unknown
The number of deaths from the extreme heat is unknown because different areas have different ways of counting these deaths. But some areas in the southwest of the United States do a better job than others.
Last year, deaths caused by heat started showing up in a new online tracker in Pima County, Arizona’s second most populous county and home to Tucson. For years, Maricopa County, which is home to Phoenix, America’s hottest big city, has kept track of deaths caused by heat. Clark County, Nevada, which is home to Las Vegas, now also lists deaths where heat played a part.
But most places have different ways of keeping track of deaths caused by heat. In some places, a medical examiner, who is usually a doctor skilled in forensic pathology, looks into deaths. There are places where the coroner could be an elected sheriff, like Orange County, California. A justice of the peace might decide the cause of death in some small counties in Texas.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) numbers are often several years behind because they are based on death certificates from local, state, tribal, and territorial files. This means that the numbers don’t give the whole picture.
According to a study by the Associated Press this year of CDC data, more than 2,300 people who died in the U.S. last summer were found to have died because of the effects of too much heat. This is the highest number of deaths in 45 years of records. Experts in medicine, public health, and weather say that number is only a small part of the real death toll.
Why proof takes so long
Pathologists sometimes need months to figure out if a death was caused by heat.
A death from heat is not always easy to figure out, unlike a suicide by hanging or a murder by bullet to the head. To find out if heat was a role, toxicological tests may need to be done for weeks or even months.
The police have a lot to think about when they find a body in a hot flat days after someone has died. Even though it might have been very hot where the body was found, no one can say for sure how hot it was inside the house when the person died.
Toxicological tests can also take a long time to show that someone has used drugs or booze.
This spring was the first time that Maricopa County’s Public Health Department could give a total count of the 645 deaths caused by heat in 2023. Some of the deaths were caused by something other than heat, like a heart attack brought on by high temperatures.
The predict-
Even though it has cooled down in Portland, Oregon, the weather was supposed to get a little warmer over the weekend, with highs in the low 90s in Salem and Eugene further south.
Phoenix’s National Weather Service said that an excessive heat warning would last until Saturday. High temperatures would reach 111 F (43.8 C), but they would drop below 110 F (43.3 C) on Sunday and stay below that level through next week.
After being under a heat advisory for 10 days, Las Vegas was supposed to have a little cooler weather through the weekend. Even so, the National Weather Service says that next week’s highs will still be higher than usual, between 110 and 112 F (43.3 and 44.4 C).
Summer is still going on.