Record heat in Phoenix continues: Maricopa County confirms 27 heat-related deaths this year

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.

Tuesday, 3 p.m., west Phoenix: 111 degrees

Drew Nelson, 19, and his friend Chris Hernandez, 20, ate lunch a little after 3 p.m. leaning against a gated fence in the shade of an overgrown tree along the canal on the west side of Phoenix.

Even in the shade, the ground around them blistered at over 120 degrees.

They sat on some old clothes with bags of food around them, one bag filled with Yoo-hoo cartons. Both had been on the street the last week, both had a history of foster homes and mental health issues, they said.

“I’ve been on and off this year, having places to stay, since I was with a roommate in January,” Nelson said.

Aside from the Yoo-hoo, the two only had a couple of 40-ounce insulated containers with water.

Tuesday night, they were hoping to stay with a mutual friend. Otherwise, they would stay outside with some people who were camping farther up the neighborhood. — Miguel Torres

Tuesday, 2 p.m., Madera Canyon, south of Tucson: 93 degrees

U.S. Forest Service maintenance crews maintain recreation sites year-round throughout the state. How do they stay cool in the middle of summer?

Zach MacDonald, who manages recreation for the Nogales Ranger District of the Coronado National Forest, said his work crews change the time of day they do certain tasks and save the more remote projects for other seasons. And they always bring lots of water.

“They'll do lower elevation work early in the morning and then work their way into higher elevation later in the day,” MacDonald said about his work crews, adding they also do more office work in the summer.

Surrounded by sycamore and oak trees in Madera Canyon, 50 miles south of Tucson, MacDonald cleared a branch out of a footpath. A cool breeze floated through the trees, making the forested area feel cool at 93 degrees. A mustached man who had finished a puzzle he brought, along with a portable chair and table, commented on how nice the weather was.  The cloud cover provided a nice respite from the typically hot sun.

MacDonald’s maintenance crews do a range of work, from ensuring the recreation areas are in good condition to trimming branches among other tasks.

During the summer, work crews do projects that keep them near their trucks, leaving more remote lower-elevation projects for the cooler seasons.

“We keep water in each of our trucks. They (the work crew) pre-hydrate, start early, (wear) long sleeves, long pants, hats, sunscreen, and sunglasses. And then we stay close to the trucks in the summertime,” MacDonald said. — Sarah Lapidus

Tuesday, 2 p.m., Echo Canyon Trailhead: 107 degrees

Esther Zanovitch started her 10-hour shift as a park ranger at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday at the start of the Echo Canyon Trail on Camelback Mountain. Zanovitch, who's 38, says she stays safe out in the heat while patrolling the trails by keeping her gallon jug filled with water and ice.

She ensures she is covered from head to toe by wearing long sleeves and long pants. She also wears a hat and sunglasses for sun protection.

Her uniform and water bottle are given to her by the city of Phoenix to make sure workers are safe while out in the sun. She takes as many breaks as she wants by standing under a sheltered area where fans are blowing.

At 2 p.m. Tuesday, the air temperature was 107 degrees, but a handheld temperature sensor found that the asphalt was 176 degrees and the trail was 168 degrees. — Kerria Weaver

Tuesday, 1:30 p.m., Phoenix: 109 degrees

Maricopa County officials have confirmed 27 heat-related deaths for the year through Saturday and are investigating another 396 incidents where heat is suspected, the county’s health department said Tuesday .

Of the 27 confirmed deaths, 19 were directly caused by heat, while heat contributed to the other eight.

Heat-caused deaths include cases where exposure to heat is listed as the direct cause of death; heat-related deaths include incidents where heat exposure is a contributing factor.

A year ago, the county had confirmed 25 heat-related deaths and was investigating 359.

Nearly a third of the confirmed deaths so far this year were among people age 70 or older and nearly half were among people ages 35-64. Two-thirds of the deaths were male, more than one-third were among people who were unhoused and two-thirds involved alcohol or drug use, officials said. — Shaun McKinnon

Tuesday 1 p.m., Phoenix: 106 degrees

Rudy Soliz is at Justa Center, by 5:30 a.m. each morning.

Justa Center, one of the only organizations in the area that exclusively provides support for people over 55 facing homelessness over 55, ramps up its year-round efforts for the simmering Phoenix summers. Soliz, the director of operations, stocks up with ice-cold water bottles before sunrise, prepared to take on one of the most dangerous times of year for people living on the street.

Soliz stepped outside briefly on a recent night in the city, he said, and was shocked by the heat.

"It felt like I was standing in front of a dryer," he said.

By noon on Tuesday, the largely quiet area around what was once the city’s largest homeless encampments heats up to 105 degrees. Some people sit outside on the sidewalk, with the cement sizzling far past 120 degrees. Inside, the AC keeps a steady heartbeat around a crisp 73 degrees. Guests are circled around an action movie while one man concentrates on a crossword puzzle. Another draws on the back of a notebook, shading in a portrait of a woman with a Bic pen.

Leon Bowles has lived in Phoenix for practically all of his life. The 61-year-old said he keeps a hat on for the hot summer days and makes sure to drink plenty of water. When he leaves the shelter by closing time, he said he finds a park to set up camp for the night.

Most nights, he falls asleep on top of his sleeping bag, getting up around 5 a.m. the next day. When he can, Bowles enjoys eating a few slices of watermelon to stay cool.

Dean Scheinert, executive director of Justa Center, said staff members often worry how guests fare after they have to close the doors at 5 p.m.

"Eight months out of the year, being an older adult experiencing homelessness is terrible," Scheinert said. "In the summer, all those challenges and obstacles are exacerbated." — Helen Rummel

Tuesday, 11:30 a.m., north Phoenix: 107 degrees

Two field organizers for Andrei Cherny’s congressional campaign, Jackson Reed, 20, and Christian Deadman, 20, canvassed the newly paved streets of a neighborhood in north Phoenix on Tuesday from 9 a.m. into the early afternoon. The duo’s goal: To canvas about 100 houses to hand out campaign information to garner votes for Cherny ahead of the July 30 primary.

Reed said the heat can slow them down at times. The Arizona Republic used a heat gun to test the temperature of the street that the canvassers walked at around 11:30 a.m., which came in at 156 degrees. The temperature outside Tuesday measured much lower at 107 degrees.

“I carry about a gallon water bottle and I have water bottles in my backpack,” Reed said, wearing a big sun hat and a Cherny campaign t-shirt. “I didn’t bring it today, but I have a cooling shirt that I wet in the shower and I wear that. I just try my best and try to stay around civilization if I need to get a water at a grocery store.”

Reed canvasses neighborhoods in the 1st Congressional District at least five days a week.

“This is democracy in action,” Reed said. “If you want to see change you have to do something about it.”

Deadman said one day that he canvassed the temperature reached 114 degrees.

“When you’re done with the day it’s so rewarding,” he said. “It’s almost like working in construction. I can see the results of my work.” — Sabine Martin

Tuesday, 7:30 a.m., Phoenix: 98 degrees

As Phoenix heated up Tuesday, the air measured 98 degrees, black leather car seats sat at 106 and the pavement hit 117.

One class of workers commuted in air-conditioned cars to air-conditioned offices, while another began laboring outdoors.

This time of year is sometimes locally termed “reverse winter,” a time many don’t wish to venture out. But some are compelled to bear the heat to keep everyone else comfortable.

Cars packed onto central Phoenix's surface streets, piling up at red lights down Indian School Road.

A man on a bicycle cruised down the sidewalk as a pair of Waymos autonomously whizzed past. At a sunny bus stop, another man bowed his head into his right hand. On a nearby corner, a man waved a promotional sign for oil changes. Construction workers at a gas station strutted the parking lot in fluorescent vests.

Commuters battling congestion on Interstate 17 were greeted by an electronic sign warning of high pollution, recommending a carpool or bus. Traffic thinned on Loop 101 as the rising sun kissed suburban tile roofs and workers stuffed the spindly green sticks of a trimmed Palo Verde into the back of a trailer.

On a quiet Sun City residential road, where a solitary quail chased its own forehead plumage, the crew of AriZona HVAC got to work installing a new air conditioner at a retiree’s winter home.

Owner Gerald Sandoz said he’s been doing this kind of work for decades, 23 years around Phoenix.

“My life revolves around the summer,” he said. — Andrew Ford

Tuesday, 7 a.m., Sky Harbor International Airport: 95 degrees

Monday's high temperature was 111 degrees, which is 5 degrees above normal. But it was 7 degrees below the high for the same day a year ago when Phoenix set a daily record with a temperature of 118 degrees.

July 2023 set record after record and, by month's end, the airport had recorded 30 days of 110 degrees or higher, and July ended as the hottest month in Phoenix since record-keeping began more than a century ago.

So far this year, temperatures have reached or exceeded 110 degrees on 18 of the first 22 days of July; twice we posted 118-degree days. The nights have been warm as well: 17 times this month, temps never dropped below 90 degrees overnight, including Monday night.

The forecast through Friday is for temperatures reaching 110 degrees or more during the day and mostly low 90s at night, with chances of monsoon thunderstorms each day. — Shaun McKinnon

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 continues: Maricopa County confirms 27 heat-related deaths this year