Heat deaths in Arizona’s biggest county outpace last year’s

By ANITA SNOW
Associated Press

PHOENIX (AP) — This summer was the worst on record for heat-associated fatalities in Arizona’s largest county, with a record 359 deaths in the desert metro before the end of the six-month heat season. The fatalities in which heat was a factor outpaced the 339 confirmed in 2021 in the county that includes Phoenix. The final number could be higher still, with another 91 deaths in Maricopa County still being investigated. It raises concerns about protecting vulnerable people including the old and the homeless, not only in the desert Southwest where temperatures regularly hit triple digits but in many more temperate cities where climate change has been fueling more intense, frequent heat waves.