Lethally Hot Weather Won't Leave Arizona and Nevada Alone

We’re currently living through a moment in time when extreme weather is setting new records around the world. When it comes to the Southwestern United States, some of those records are especially bleak in their implications — both in terms of the climate itself and for our own ability as a species to survive under harsh conditions. The National Weather Service’s Las Vegas office, for instance, recently declared that this year “continues to break heat records.”

That’s not the worst of it. As The Guardian‘s Gabrielle Canon reports, the number of deaths from heat-related causes in both Arizona and Nevada numbers in the hundreds so far this year. This includes a record 342 deaths in southern Nevada and an estimated 664 deaths from the heat in Arizona’s Maricopa County. Last month, The Guardian noted another Southwestern milestone related to the heat: the hottest month on record in Death Valley National Park was July 2024.

Maricopa County’s total number of heat-related deaths was also unnervingly high last year, with CNN reporting that 645 people died there from the heat in 2023.

Earlier this month, The Washington Post‘s Dan Stillman and Ian Livingston noted that both Phoenix and Las Vegas had both set new records for the number of days where the temperature exceeded 100 degrees. This goes far beyond the temperature grazing 101 degrees; instead, Las Vegas set a new record for its hottest day ever in July. That temperature? 120 degrees.

Turns Out the Oceans Are Experiencing Record Heat, Too

It’s another sign of climate change’s global effects

Besides climate change, there are other factors that can make these conditions even more hazardous for the people experiencing them. Some antidepressants, for instance, can make the effects of extreme heat even worse. It’s not surprising that local governments have established cooling centers in the area — but with conditions this harsh, keeping the population of a metropolitan area safe and cool represents a significant challenge.