PHOENIX — The City of Phoenix is seeing its hottest summer ever recorded, but the number of heat-related deaths is lower than it was last year in Maricopa County so far.
As of the latest number from the Maricopa County Public Health Department, as of August 31, there are a confirmed 177 heat-related deaths with another 436 under investigation. The county says 103 were heat-caused while 74 were heat contributed.
As of the same time frame for 2023, the total confirmed number of deaths was at 194 while 493 were under investigation. Maricopa County saw a record number last year at 645 heat-related deaths in a single year in 2023. ABC15 investigators also learned that there is no standardized way deaths are counted across the state.
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While it may be hard to exactly pinpoint why the numbers are lower this year compared to last year at this point, Dr. Nick Staab, the assistant medical director for the Maricopa County Public Health says it is a good sign.
“We also know that this has been a record-hot summer. So, I think the fact that our numbers up until now are lower than they were last year is encouraging that the programs that we ran, that we ran with our partners this summer have helped,” Staab said.
A large amount of those deaths this year happened in the City of Phoenix, where leaders this year extended the hours of cooling centers into later than regular normal business hours. There are also two locations that have been operational overnight, and the city opened the cooling centers even earlier in the year. Brian Lee, the director of the Office of Emergency Management with the city, says they opened cooling centers in May this year. Last year it was sometime in June.
“I don't know how much enough would ever be,” Lee said when asked a question about if this is enough to help. “I mean, we certainly want to be able to put out as many options as available.”
There are also more partnerships to help this summer, including for those experiencing homelessness. According to newly updated data, 47% of people who died so far this year are unhoused. There has been a total of 76% of heat-related deaths occurring outdoors and 24% of them happening indoors.
“A big part of our push in communications this summer has been to check on your neighbor to check on your family and your loved ones. And part of that is making sure that people who are at high risk do have functioning air conditioning,” said Staab.
As officials continue to monitor the number of people dying from the heat for the rest of the year, numbers will not be finalized for quite some time. Lee said the cooling centers will be operational at least through September 30 as the extreme heat starts winding down toward the end of this month. After that, Lee said the city will re-evaluate on a site’s needed basis.
