Record heat in Phoenix area: 'It gets overwhelming sometimes'

Heat envelops our lives in Arizona's Sonoran Desert. How does it define us?

Average July temperatures in the 1920s were between 89.3 and 92.7 degrees in Phoenix's urban environments, data from the National Weather Service show. In the past 10 years, that average has not dipped below 94.7 and hit a new high of 102.7 degrees in 2023.

Scientists say the increase is about half due to the heat-trapping result of development sprawling in every direction and half due to human-caused climate change.

This week, reporters and photographers are spreading out across the hottest major metro area in the United States to explore how people suffer from the heat, adapt and survive.

Follow along with live coverage from Republic reporters in what is annually one of the hottest weeks of the year in the Phoenix area.

4 p.m., downtown Phoenix: 108 degrees

It was almost 4 p.m. and the temperature was well above 100 degrees. But the searing heat didn’t seem to bother Geraldine King.

The 92-year-old woman was sitting in the shade in front of the Westward Ho near downtown Phoenix. For a chair, she used her walker. Her long gray hair streamed down the sides of her face from a black cowboy hat. In one hand she clutched a can of Coke Zero.

King has lived in a one-bedroom apartment on the 9 ^th floor of the former luxury hotel for 22 years. The 16-story building is now a federally subsidized apartment complex for elderly people living in poverty.

Every so often someone entered or exited the building and a blast of cold air poured out.

King said the air conditioning inside the building works great. The power went out Sunday evening during a storm. But it was back on within minutes.

Then what was she doing outside in the heat?

At least three times a day King said she leaves her apartment and sits outside on her walker for about an hour. No matter how hot it gets. It was important, she said, to stay acclimated.

“This heat is unprecedented,” she said, “It’s hotter than it’s ever been.”

It also beat sitting alone in her apartment isolated all day, she said.

“I come out here to see about things,” King said. “I look at everything that goes on.”

— Daniel Gonzalez

Noon, central Phoenix: 100 degrees

Tiffany Sendelvach waits for her bus to arrive so she can get to work, and she’s wearing, of all things, a light sweater.

“I bring a jacket. It's kind of counterintuitive, but it helps keep the sun off of me,” she says Monday, explaining how she copes during a typical summer day in the Valley.

Normally, the 30-year-old Phoenix resident would also have her bottle of water to help stay cool when she’s not in any air-conditioned space.

She left it behind today, though, because she was only taking a short trip to her job at Almost There Rescue, a dog rescue off Indian School Road and 26th Street.

Sendelvach, who moved back to Phoenix in 2017 after temporarily relocating to Virginia for a year, relies on the Valley Metro bus and light rail system “every time I work.”

“And so that's usually like three to four days a week,” she says. “And then I also take the bus for pretty much everything else too. So just about every day.”

As Sendelvach sits at the bus stop bench on Indian School, just off 15th Avenue, a shade blocks out the sun. But not every stop she encounters offers the same amenity.

“It gets pretty hot, especially at the stop over there, when there's no shade because the angle of the sun,” she says, pointing to a bus stop on the northern side of the intersection. “I try to hide behind things in the shade a lot.”

Oftentimes, Sendelvach says, she needs a respite from the sun. That’s when she’ll refer to a card she keeps that lists Phoenix’s cooling centers. If she’s near one, she won’t hesitate to get a bit of relief from the heat.

But like any Phoenician, she encourages everyone to stay hydrated.

“Drink more water than you think you need to because you are sweating — even if you don't realize it, you are sweating and you know, just exhaling releases water too,” she says. “We need to stay hydrated here for sure."

— Shawn Raymundo

Noon, downtown Phoenix: 102 degrees

Phoenix native Emmanuel Soto spends his days working outdoors across the Valley as a gas line locator. We found him at Jefferson and Third streets. For him, the heat is not a new foe: Hydration and hats are the keys to staying safe in the scorching summer heat.

“It gets overwhelming sometimes, but you learn to manage,” Soto said. “You learn how much is enough to be able to stay hydrated.”

The temperature in Phoenix at noon is 102 degrees, according to the National Weather Service. Phoenix's daily high is expected to be 109 degrees.

Earlier this month, the Biden administration advanced a rule to mandate worker heat protections during extreme weather events, including heat waves .

The standards outlined by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, have been in the works since 2021. It’s unclear when they might move forward.

During the announcement, President Joe Biden mentioned Phoenix specifically before reminding listeners that "extreme heat is the number one weather-related killer in the United States. More people die from extreme heat than floods, hurricanes and tornadoes combined."

His administration estimates the new OSHA heat guidelines would help create safer conditions for about 36 million indoor and outdoor workers across the nation, reducing heat injuries, illnesses, and deaths.

— Fernando Cervantes Jr., Joan Meiners

11 a.m., downtown Tucson: Nearly 92 degrees

Retired military personnel and Tucson native Roy Salcido needed something to do after retiring from the Tucson Unified School District, so he began part-time work as a parking attendant.

Salcido works four hours, four days a week overseeing two open-air parking lots across the street from each other in downtown Tucson. By 11 a.m. on Monday, it was 92 degrees. The sun beat down on Salcido, who had been working since 8 a.m.

“I try to keep my hat cold and wet, and just try to find shade to stay under as much as possible,” he said, adding that he crosses to the shaded side of the street when he can. Salcido wore a wide-brim khaki outdoor hat and a bright orange shirt with the words Arizona Auto Parks sewn on the front in small black letters.

Salcido said he changes hats in the morning when the temperature warms up. He begins the day wearing a baseball cap, which he prefers, switching to a wide-brim hat for more protection when temperatures rise around 9 a.m.

When he began this work three years ago, getting used to the heat was a challenge.

“At the beginning, I had to work up to it. I had just gotten off of some medical problems,” he said. “The first year was difficult.”

Salcido reiterated that he doesn’t have to do this work but chooses to despite the high temperatures.

On some days Salcido doesn’t want to start work but once he begins working, he doesn’t mind the heat, he said. However, he still loves the rare instances when a breeze passes by.

“It’s nice when the clouds come in when the wind is blowing,” Salcido said.

— Sarah Lapidus

10 a.m., downtown Phoenix: nearly 100 degrees

Marcy Jones was rolling her gear up with her boyfriend to head to a daytime shelter, the 10 a.m. heat already making the job visibly exhausting. The couple has been moving from street to street since one of them was banned from a Phoenix shelter.

They wanted to stay together so they are both out living in the Phoenix sun for at least another month. Even though they are out in the heat, it's worth it for them.

“We need each other,” she said, “having him with me has changed my life. We're finally getting things turned around."

Downtown Phoenix was already topping around 100 degrees mid-morning. Before the temperatures got any hotter, the couple needed to gather about 40 to 60 pounds of gear that included a tent, clothes, water jugs, documents for Jones’ mental health issues and housing applications, and dozens of other pieces of gear needed to survive the summer or continue to receive care.

Jacob Calandreli, 46, of Phoenix, stood under an umbrella in front of the Footprint Center on Monday. He and another volunteer for Jehovah’s Witnesses talk to passing residents to promote Bible literature, he said.

To work in the heat, Calandreli said he hydrates the day before he volunteers. He rotates with other volunteers every 20 minutes.

“The process starts the day before to stay cool,” he said. “We limit our exposure to the heat.”

As temperatures started to rise in downtown Phoenix on Monday morning, 23-year-old Ashtyn Burbank stood outside at Adeline Luxury Living’s valet desk on East Jefferson Street. He said he’s worked as a valet in the Phoenix heat for a year.

Burbank brings a gallon-size bottle of water to stay hydrated at work. He said he periodically takes breaks for 10 minutes inside the air-conditioned lobby.

“Just the other day, I worked 15 hours, and it was 107,” Burbank said.

He said working outside last summer helped him figure out how to do it now.

— Miguel Torres and Sabine Martin

8 a.m., Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport: 87 degrees

The work week begins with projected high temperatures of 106 to 109 degrees on Monday, an overnight low of 81 to 86 degrees and a 20% to 30% chance of storms.

Monsoon season is in full swing. Strong, severe winds were forecast for the Interstate 10 corridor west of Phoenix in the late afternoon and evening.

— Republic staff

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Record heat in Phoenix area: 'It gets overwhelming sometimes'