Heat envelops our lives in Arizona's Sonoran Desert. How does it define us?
One way is through the infrastructure of people and organizations, including public resources provided by cities and other governments, that has developed to help people who cannot protect themselves from scorching outdoor temperatures.
The Heat Relief Network , a regional partnership of governments, community groups, churches, businesses and nonprofits, is coordinated by the Maricopa Association of Governments to make it easier for people needing shelter from the sun or access to water to find help. Transportation to a heat relief center is as easy as calling 2-1-1.
These services can be lifesaving. Curtis Bridgewater, who has relied this summer on a Salvation Army site in Chander for protection from the heat, put it this way: “The sun, it gives life, but it will also take it."
This week, Arizona Republic reporters and photographers are spreading out across the hottest major metro area in the U.S. to explore how desert dwellers suffer from the heat, adapt and survive. Here's what we found on Thursday, July 25, 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'
Tuesday's report: 'My life revolves around the summer'
Wednesday's report: 'The sun, it gives life, but it will also take it'
Daniel Cruz, 41, sat in the 108-degree heat by his parked car, which is also his home, near the intersection of Camelback Road and 35th Avenue, eating lunch and smoking a cigarette.
At 1 p.m., the car was 157 degrees inside, loaded with most of his belongings.
During the day, he drives to a cooling center or library and tries to resist the heat. At night, he sleeps in his car with the windows down.
He avoids using the AC when gas prices go up, but sometimes he can't avoid it, he said.
“I’ve got a little gig, so I’m not so nervous about running it right now,” he said.
— Miguel Torres
As temperatures soared past 100 degrees around midday in downtown Mesa, Thaddeus Fort and Skylar Perovich chatted at the shaded bus stop on the southeast corner of Alma School Road and Main Street.
Fort, 66, and Perovich, 17, had met each other only minutes earlier.
Fort, who is unhoused, was seeking some relief from the sun in the shade. Shirtless and clutching a water bottle, he had been standing at the bus stop for a couple of hours. Sweat streamed down his face.
The temperature at the bus stop reached 102 degrees, even in the shade. The pavement was searing at 159 degrees.
Even after dark, Fort said, it's hard to find relief from the heat.
"It's still pretty hot even at night," he said. "I'll just toss and turn in the pavement. ... Arizona just sucks. Mainly in the summer."
Perovich was waiting for the bus to take him home to Gilbert after attending a class at the East Valley Institute of Technology. He mostly relies on public transit and his skateboard to get around.
A few weeks back, Perovich said he experienced heat exhaustion symptoms while skating from his home to his girlfriend's place around noon. The trip usually takes him half an hour on his skateboard, he said.
"Not even halfway there, I started feeling dizzy, nauseous, dry throat and feeling like I was going to faint, but I pushed myself even further. I almost passed out," he said.
Perovich attends EVIT's automotive program and hopes to find a job and begin saving for a car soon. He plans to move to Colorado when he graduates, partly to escape the heat and "experience actual seasons," he said.
— Laura Daniella Sepúlveda
Leonard Morris prayed as he revved his F-250 Super Duty up an Interstate 10 on-ramp Thursday morning.
“Lord my heavenly father, please bless me with traveling mercy,” he said. “For heavenly angels wrap about me, to guard me, protect me, those around me, and those who are driving as well, that they may keep their eyes on the road, that we are respectful of each other as we switch lanes, and as we go from point A to point B, that no one gets hurt, no one gets into any accidents, and that we are kept from any danger. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.”
Protected by faith and a ballistic vest, the 36-year-old saves stranded drivers on the Phoenix metro beltway. He’s a modern-day Good Samaritan, a roadside motorist assistant for the Arizona Department of Public Safety, tasked with patrolling state highways and taking calls when cars break down.
He’s been on the job for five years, and he sees an uptick when temperatures climb, often because people forget to check their car fluids and fail to do routine maintenance.
His vest can feel like a sauna suit this time of year, so he blasts his truck’s AC and keeps a gallon of cool water ready.
On Thursday, he roamed the roads, checking on young guys changing a tire and assessing the oil on a broken-down panel van.
On the right shoulder of Interstate 101 near Cave Creek Road, he ventured into the roar of passing traffic to address an abandoned Ford Five Hundred sedan. The car seemed to be panting with its windows down — it was overcast, but the thermometer had already climbed to 97 by 10 a.m. The car’s maroon paint registered 108.
An orange police sticker on the rear window told Morris the car had been there for about a day, well over its two-hour grace period.
Morris is merciful. He’s sensitive that this may become expensive for the owner, so he tries not to resort to a tow. But he has to clear the danger.
In the shade of his truck cab, he filled out a report to have a contracted towing company remove the road hazard. In seven minutes, the car was gone.
This was a routine call, with no frantic driver present. Sometimes, he responds to crashes that are much more stressful, and tempers can flare.
His truck bears a decal saying “courteous vigilance,” and Morris tries to embody the motto. In addition to his water, vest and a truckload of road equipment, he might carry a bag of silicone bracelets like the pair he wears, bearing a message to soothe weary travelers: “Jesus loves you.”
— Andrew Ford
Kevin Fawthorp spent part of his morning Thursday with his body halfway in the hood of a car, hoisting a 50-pound engine into a truck.
Sweat dripped from his forehead, into his eyes and off of his chin. Fawthorp is a technician at Martin's Auto Repair, where it was 98 degrees inside the garage at 10 a.m. Fans and swamp coolers blew overhead, making an honest, if not particularly impressive, attempt to make a dent in the heat. Outside, the air measured 103.
"Swamp coolers, when it gets this humid, don't work, and you can't exactly have AC out here — it's not cost-effective," he said. "The heat's really bad."
To cope with working long hours beneath hoods and undercarriages, Fawthorp said he goes to the gym every morning at 4 a.m. to maintain his back strength. He also carries a one-gallon insulated water bottle he refills at least three times a day to stay hydrated.
In an Arizona summer, cars are often hot to the touch and trap heat inside. Around 10:30 a.m., a truck outside the shop measured 110 degrees, and the inside of a car Sebastian Estrada was fixing measured 115.
Estrada learned car repair from his dad. When he was a kid, the two of them worked outside on cars with no air conditioning at all, so he isn't sweating it, he said — mentally, at least.
— Christina Avery
It was 97 degrees at 9:30 a.m. on Thursday, and 80-year-old Stan Pardee had already been working outside for two hours.
Despite the sweat accumulating on his gray T-shirt, 97 degrees was not hot for him, he said. The day’s forecast expected highs of around 102 by mid-afternoon.
“It’s not hot yet,” he said.
Twice per week, for four hours each time, Pardee volunteers at his church on Tucson’s east side, cleaning plant debris, pruning and raking. He does this backbreaking work because it’s needed, he said.
“It's the first thing people see when they come in,” he said. “I don't do the preaching, but they won't listen to that if they see a mess and turn around and leave."
He called it an invisible but necessary job. While people might not notice the work done to clean the church’s grounds, he said, they will notice if they look overgrown and shabby.
A retired engineer with the Raytheon Company and Tucson resident for 40 years, the heat doesn’t seem to bother him as he raked just-cut branches. To keep cool, he wore a wide-brimmed hat and started work half an hour earlier to finish before the day started to really heat up.
He also dislikes air conditioners, he said.
“I walk into the office, and it almost kills you,” he said.
Pardee handles the summer heat by going slowly as he tends to the landscape and picks up trash on the 10 acres in front of El Camino Baptist Church.
While the heat does not impact his health, it does tire him out.
“I'm tired in the afternoon; time to rest,” he said.
— Sarah Lapidus
Many metro Phoenix residents head to Flagstaff in the summer when temperatures soar. But the northern Arizona city is heating up too.
Karin DeMarse and Julia Triebes had just finished a hike at Buffalo Park and were staying in the shade.
“It’s gotten a lot hotter in the past five years,” said Triebes, who moved to Flagstaff from Atlanta 20 years ago. “We are closer to the sun up here, and sometimes people visit and don’t realize that.”
She has air conditioning in her house, but many people still don’t.
DeMarse said more people hang out at cool public places like the library during the summer.
“It used to be you couldn’t wear shorts at night in the summer because it was too cool, but not now,” she said.
She said her family stays cool by doing everything before 10 a.m. and wetting a bandana when out and about.
Both said the wildfires have made the heat worse, partly because people have to shut their windows to keep out the smoke and can’t let in cooler air in the morning and at night.
— Catherine Reagor and Sean Holstege
It was 96 degrees at 8:30 a.m. at the construction site of the $1.5 billion Vantage Data Center campus in Goodyear.
General contractor McCarthy Building Companies has been working for the past two and a half years to build out the campus, and Thursday marked the milestone where the walls could be “tilted up” on some of the buildings, the beginnings of the vertical building shell.
About 350 construction workers across trades were working at the site Thursday, though up to about 600 construction workers can be working on the site at once.
The large site includes several cooling stations, trailers and other temporary structures with air conditioning, seating and refrigerators with water for construction workers to use when taking a break from the heat.
Daniel Patella and Pedro Martinez, both journeymen carpenters at McCarthy, arrived for work at 4 a.m. and 3 a.m., respectively, but some other construction workers had been at it since as early as 2 a.m.
Jeff Jajou, safety manager at McCarthy, said that by about 1 p.m., most work on the site wraps up, keeping workers out of the hottest parts of the day.
To help combat the heat and boost morale, the site has an ice cream truck come each Thursday to provide free ice cream, and people from McCarthy, called the “heat busters,” pass out popsicles to workers daily and check up on them, making sure they are taking adequate breaks and getting enough water.
Martinez said using a cooling towel and a cooling insert in his hard hat that can be doused with water can help make working outdoors more comfortable, even while using necessary safety equipment. Long-sleeved shirts made out of light fabric that can be splashed with water can also provide sun protection and cooling.
— Corina Vanek
Hunkapi, a nonprofit equine therapy farm based out of Scottsdale , is asking the community for donations to support their horses during the summer's extreme heat.
Equine therapy uses horses to help people with mental or physical challenges. Hunkapi offers courses for first responders, people in addiction recovery, people with disabilities and children in group homes.
The Hunkapi horses are currently at the group's Flagstaff location to escape the sweltering heat of the Valley. However, the organization says that even up north, the summer temperatures still take a heavy toll on the animals, especially the older horses.
Scottsdale's high today is 112, with an overnight low of 86. Flagstaff's high today is 87, with an overnight low of 55.
The program is seeking help to pay for 160 bales of hay to sustain the herd at its northern location until the end of the summer. Each bale costs $25.
— Marcus Reichley
Every year since 2016, more than 70 percent of the heat-related deaths that occurred indoors in Maricopa County were in places where air conditioning was not functioning, according to county records.
Maricopa County households facing financial hardship can apply for AC repair assistance through the county's Emergency Home Repair Program .
— Republic staff
The Valley’s extreme heat has been especially harsh for residents of Buenas on 32nd apartment complex , which caught the ire of Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes on Tuesday for failing to address air conditioning problems despite triple-digit temps.
Mayes sent a demand letter to Buenas Communities LLC on Tuesday, saying the company needed to take immediate action to address the ineffective AC at the complex, located at 32nd Avenue and Indian School Road.
The letter instructed Buenas Communities to fix any affected air conditioning unit by Friday at 5 p.m. and provide written confirmation of the repair by July 29 at 5 p.m., a news release stated.
On Wednesday, most of the apartment units had AC units mounted in windows with cardboard or plywood filling in part of the window frame.
The Buenas Communities corporate office did not respond to phone and email messages from The Republic.
Earlier this month, AZFamily reported that Buenas Communities provided a statement saying the company was working with a vendor to expedite the purchase of a new chiller system. However, there was a 20-week wait time, the statement said.
"Tenants do have portable A/C’s in each of their living areas to facilitate a comfortable living environment in the meantime," Buenas Communities told AZ Family. "Tenants are also well aware that if any issues arise they can reach us at any given time and we will be sure to tend to their needs."
Doug Brynjulson, who had lived at the complex for about a month, said his window unit only blew lukewarm air inside the apartment and that his ceiling fan had begun to fail.
Brynjulson said he’s complained to the apartment management repeatedly about the issues. Their responses have been that they’re understaffed or working on the issue, he said.
Since 2021, the complex has had eight cooling-related violation cases, not including the current case, according to Teleia Galaviz, a spokesperson for Phoenix's Neighborhood Services Department.
Three cases were opened in 2021, four in 2022 and one in 2023.
“It’s pretty much like trying to talk to the wall and say, ‘Hey, change color.’” Brynjulson said. “It’s not going to do that until you paint over it and change the color yourself.”
— Perry Vandell and L.M. Boyd
Planning for meeting energy needs can involve looking decades into the future, one day ahead, and responding in real time, all at once, said Angie Bond-Simpson, senior director of resource management for SRP. The utility does planning for 30 years into the future, as well as daily estimates on what use is expected for the next day.
“The variation in how customers use power usually correlates to temperature,” she said, adding that as temperatures increase, it is natural that customers will use more energy to cool their homes and businesses.
At SRP’s Agua Fria Generating Station in Glendale, a variety of different power generators and energy storage systems are in use to ensure a diversity of supply and a resilient system, she said. The site has added on-site battery storage, which can supplement some energy sources that can be intermittent, like solar and wind.
Demand for energy continues to grow, according to data provided by APS. On July 15, 2022, APS customers broke the peak daily demand record, using 8,162 megawatts of power, and the utility is expecting to see the record broken again this year. The previous APS energy demand record was set in 2020, with 7,660 megawatts used.
— Corina Vanek
Thursday's weather is forecast to be sunny and hot again, with a high near 113 and heat index values up to 114. The National Weather Service projects a 20% chance of showers and thunderstorms in the late afternoon and a 30% chance in the evening, with patchy blowing dust from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. and an overnight low around 89.
— Republic staff
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Surviving Phoenix's extreme heat: 'It's not hot yet' in Tucson
Local Arizona State
Most Popular
Comments / 0