The Valley hit 118 degrees on July 5, setting a new record for that date on the calendar. The heat peaked at 118 again on Monday, knocking down a record for that date set in 1985. This was after Phoenix set two daily temperature records last month — June 6 at 113 degrees and June 21 at 117 — while enduring the hottest June ever registered in the Valley.
It feels as though we've been living in one continuous excessive heat warning. Even worse, more and more people are dying because of it.
Maricopa County updates its heat-related illness and death dashboard every Sunday. As of last week, the county has tracked 14 confirmed heat-related deaths, with an additional 234 under investigation. At the same point last year — a record-breaking summer in its own right — the county had confirmed 12 heat deaths with only 106 under investigation.
Last year, the county ultimately tallied a record 645 heat-related deaths, and 2024 is on pace to surpass that. Unsurprisingly, the number of suspected heat deaths has risen dramatically as temperatures have spiked in June and July.
Suspected heat deaths have spiked with temperatures, with Maricopa County already investigating more than double the number of deaths compared with this point last year.
Maricopa County
Notably, the unhoused make up only 10.3% of hospital visits despite accounting for a much larger proportion of deaths, suggesting that the unhoused are unable to access health care treatments that could save their lives.
Phoenix and Maricopa County have struggled to combat homelessness, with the number of unhoused people in the Valley growing to nearly 10,000 in the latest count. This year, the county and several cities launched an effort to provide more relief through cooling centers — keeping them open longer and on weekends after many closed at the hottest time of the day last year. The Maricopa Association of Governments also refreshed its annual online map network that people can use to find cooling, respite and hydration stations across the Valley.
The cooling centers are highly concentrated in Phoenix, which has dozens. This summer, five are operating later into the night than they did in 2023. At Cholla, Harmon and Yucca libraries, the facilities are open Mondays through Saturdays until 10 p.m. The Senior Opportunities West Senior Center will operate as an overnight cooling center from 6 p.m. to 5 a.m. Phoenix also has opened a new 24/7 cooling center at Burton Barr Central Library.
Each center, however, has a limited capacity. According to city of Phoenix public information officer Keyera Williams, cooling centers at the three libraries have a capacity of 20, while the overnight centers serve a maximum of 50.
At the same time, the U.S. Supreme Court recently cleared the way for Phoenix to enforce its camping bans, which criminalize sleeping on public property and, advocates say, make the problem of homelessness worse.
