The deadliest extreme weather event is not what you think it is

Meanwhile, in the county of Clark in southern Nevada, the Coroner office announced last week that 29 death -related deaths had been reported so far this year – until the same era in 2024. The Clark County includes the city of Las Vegas, which is one of the faster cities of the country’s warming.

The county recorded his first death linked to heat for 2025 on May 9, weeks before his first confirmation Heat -related deaths at the end of May 2024. Last year was particularly deadly for southern Nevada, with 527 heat -related deaths, according to the County Coroner of Clark and the Legalist’s office.

The summer of 2024 was the hottest in southern Nevada in recorded history, according to the National Weather Service. Las Vegas recorded a new high temperature high of 120 degrees Fahrenheit last July and suffered more than 100 days of three -digit temperatures.

Nearby, in the county of Maricopa in Arizona, 15 heat -related deaths were recorded on July 19. This early figure follows the 23 confirmed deaths recorded on July 19, 2024, although public health files indicate that 299 deaths are still the subject of a survey.

In May, the Department of Public Health of the County of Maricopa said that last year, at least one death linked to heat had occurred every day in the county of Maricopa from June 18 to July 31.

In 2024, which was the hottest year registered for the county, the authorities confirmed 602 heat -related deaths, against a record of 645 heat -related deaths in 2023. This marked the first Maricopa drop in heat deaths in a decade.

Local officials have launched several new initiatives aimed at keeping people cool and safe during the summer, including planting trees to increase shadow in public spaces and resurfaces with more reflective surfaces in certain areas to fight urban heat.

“For many people, heat is a drawback, but for others, it is really a matter of life and death”, “ said Ariel Choonard, a scientist from the Desert Research Institute in Las Vegas and head of Nevada Heat Lab.

Some people are more at risk than others, like the elderly, people with chronic health problems or young children who may not be able to articulate what they feel, she said.

Exposure to extreme heat also tends to disproportionately affect low -income communities, according to Choonard. While everyone in a city like Las Vegas is exposed to high temperatures in summer, the way people experience this heat depends if they have stable housing, whether they depend on public transport, or if they have access and can afford air conditioning.

A study published in August 2024 in the journal Jama revealed that from 1999 to 2023, there were 21,518 heat-related deaths in the United States. Research has followed these deaths each year and found that heat -related mortality rates have increased in the past two decades, and in particular in the past seven years.