Record heat in Phoenix area: Mayes orders apartment complex to fix AC units

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

The Maricopa County Department of Public Health and Safety has confirmed 14 heat-related deaths since May , with 234 more deaths under investigation as the intense summer heat persists.

As of this time in 2023, the county had recorded 12 heat-related deaths, with about 100 under investigation.

Phoenix is seeing hotter temperatures than in 2023 as well. Last month broke the record for the hottest June in Phoenix, with an average temperature of 97 degrees.

This week, Arizona Republic reporters and photographers are spreading out across the hottest major metro area in the United States to explore how the desert dwellers suffer from the heat, adapt and survive. Here's what we found on Tuesday, July 23, 2024.

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

Monday's report: 'It's hotter than it's ever been'

4:15 p.m., Guadalupe: 109 degrees

Josefina Casillas, a 64-year-old member of the Yaqui tribe, lives with her father in a traditional adobe house painted pale pink.

Her grandfather, Tata Jesús, once owned a large tract of land beside a canal. Over time, this land was divided into several plots, each now home to different family members.

Josefina fondly recalls swimming in the canal with her cousins as a child on sweltering days like today. Now, swimming is prohibited in these SRP canals.

At 14, she began working in the cotton fields. "We got used to the heat by starting early in the morning," Josefina says, laughing as she reminisces about the cotton absorbing their sweat. "The plants were all wet."

After many years in retail with JC Penney, Josefina now crafts and sells "artesanías" made from colored beads and seeds. She used to sell her creations at Yaqui festivities until a fall three years ago resulted in a broken knee.

As a tribal member, she has access to public health services. "A doctor from the Indian health center referred me to a hospital in Phoenix," she says.

The heat exacerbates her pain, and her medication causes excessive sweating.

"We used to have a swamp cooler, but it broke down," she says. Now, a metal box air conditioner juts from one of her windows. She dislikes it because it only cools one room, unlike the swamp cooler that kept the entire house comfortable.

— Trilce Estrada Olvera

4 p.m., Phoenix: 111 degrees

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes sent a demand letter Tuesday to a Phoenix apartment complex to address up to 400 broken or ineffective air conditioning units.

The demand letter sent by the Attorney General's office said Buenas Communities LLC needed to start immediate action to address air conditioning issues at the Buenas on 32nd apartment complex, located at 32nd Avenue and Indian School Road.

“The extreme heat poses a serious health risk, and it’s unacceptable for tenants to be without proper air conditioning,” wrote Mayes in a news release.

The Attorney General's Office expected Buenas Communities to fix any affected air conditioning unit by July 26 at 5 p.m. and provide written confirmation of the repair by July 29 at 5 p.m., the news release said.

Mayes' office said an investigation into Buenas Communities was ongoing and legal action would be considered against the landlord.

— Reynaldo Covarrubias Jr.

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, 1:30 p.m., Buckeye: 77 degrees indoors

It’s not unusual for Laura Figueroa and her husband to get a $350 electric bill during the summer. They like to keep their Buckeye home at a chill 77 degrees.

But this month, they’re already tracking to spend twice that.

“We’re paying $700 for the electricity bill because (the air conditioning unit has) been using a lot more power than it should be,” the 34-year-old Figueroa says.

The unit, which they’ve had since moving into the home eight years ago, has been running constantly for the past several weeks. It’s also been making strange sounds.

For Figueroa, who has a newborn daughter, the noise has kept the mother and former teacher up most nights as the appliance sits right outside her bedroom.

“I felt like it had a plastic bag over it,” she recalls. “And I could hear it struggling.”

She called Air-Zona A/C, Heating & Ventilation to inspect the situation. The company eventually found that the unit wasn’t installed properly.

Gerald Sandoz, owner of Air-Zona, says the noise was the compressor when it turns on and off.

“It’s just eventually going to die,” he says of the current unit, which will be replaced early next week.

“Murphy’s Law, when they do die, it’s usually on the one of the hottest days of the year when they’re working the hardest because that’s when it draws the most amps,” he adds. “I’m surprised it’s still running because it’s that high.”

Figueroa’s situation, he says, is quite common, especially among track homes like hers.

“The motor out there, because it’s in the heat and just gets abused, nonstop running,” he says, “it’s really common for the high amp draws.”

— Shawn Raymundo

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, 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

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

10 a.m., southwest Phoenix: 100 degrees

As temperatures soared just past 100 degrees around 10 a.m. at Camino Vista mobile home park in southwest Phoenix, Bernardo Zazueta Valenzuela was outside his home enjoying the shade from his front-yard tree with his dogs, Solovino and Chilindrina.

Zazueta, 82, said the temperature difference inside and outside his home was not that big around mid-morning. He has a window AC unit in his mobile home that only cools one room at a time and sometimes does not provide enough cooling for the rest of his metal-laminated home.

Zazueta, a retired caregiver who has lived in the Phoenix area for the past 20 years, said he's used to the heat.

"Sometimes the home does heat up a lot, especially on days like this. But the good thing is that I don't struggle much with the heat," Zazueta said. "Sometimes I worry more about my pets, I have a cat who is sometimes very affected by the heat."

Zazueta keeps a small wading pool in his front yard for his pets and makes sure they stay well hydrated and eat properly, he said.

Some of his strategies to stay cool also include cracking open a window if temperatures ever cool down at night and closing his blinds during the day. But his favorite cooling method is keeping snack pieces of his favorite fruit, watermelon, in the fridge, and eating them when he needs to cool off.

Some summers have been especially challenging during the eight years Zazueta has lived in his mobile home, from AC units breaking down, to a refrigerator failing and causing his food to perish, to his home nearly burning down due to damage in his cable system. But he said he's always had help from the community and neighbors in the area, so he has been able to overcome these challenges and he feels thankful for the support he has received.

"They are always looking out for me and help me a lot. Thanks to them I feel comfortable here," he said.

Even with the list of setbacks some summers have brought for Zazueta, he said he still prefers the summertime over the chilly winter temperatures. Zazueta has a knee injury and his pain tends to increase when it gets cold, so he said that makes the scorching summer temperatures in Phoenix more bearable for him.

"In the heat I'm fine. I can handle it. But in the cold I can't, the pain affects me a lot," Zazueta said.

— Laura Daniella Sepúlveda

7:30 a.m., Sun City: 98 degrees

As the Valley of the Sun heated about 7:30 a.m. 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 the I-17 were greeted by an electronic sign warning of high pollution, recommending a carpool or bus. Traffic thinned on the 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 AirZona 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

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

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Record heat in Phoenix area: Mayes orders apartment complex to fix AC units