Arizona’s Record-Breaking Summer and the Urgent Call for Action
In 2023, Arizona experienced record-breaking heat, recording 73 days with temperatures greater than 100 degrees Fahrenheit and an unprecedented 31 days with temperatures higher than 110 degrees Fahrenheit. Unfortunately, temperatures aren’t cooling off anytime soon, with projections expecting up to 117 days over 100 degrees Fahrenheit by 2030, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services. Rising temperatures are not only an environmental crisis but also a pressing issue for residents, and Arizonans understand that tackling these challenges is an urgent priority.
WHY IT MATTERS
According to the Gallup Arizona Survey, 84 percent of Arizonans, including 80 percent of those living in rural parts of the state, support reducing the heat island in our urban areas. Arizonans recognize the need to address extreme heat in our state for both health and environmental concerns.
Over 600 people lost their lives to heat in Maricopa County last year, a 52 percent increase from 2022. This poses a significant public health problem in Maricopa County that the state describes as largely preventable. Nearly three-fourths of residents who experienced a heat-related death had lived in Arizona for twenty years or more. Deaths in outdoor settings have driven the increase in a total number of heat-related deaths in recent years, but other factors like uncooled indoor environments, homelessness, substance abuse, and health conditions like cardiopulmonary disease contribute.
In addition to heat-related sickness and death, extreme heat contributes to a range of health factors, including less participation in healthy outdoor recreation, more dependence on personal vehicles for transportation, and social isolation, among many others. Also, heat is a factor in numerous environmental conditions, including increased mortality for plants, including those that are well adapted to this region, like the Saguaro cactus, which has seen both an increase in death and a decrease in the establishment of young plants in recent years.
Now more than ever, leaders need to design interventions to prevent heat-related deaths among our most vulnerable populations. Among the actions that have been taken to address heat-related sickness and death are:
- High-level long-term strategies to expand the tree canopy over Phoenix, with a goal of 25% tree canopy by 2030;
- Development and publication of the Arizona Extreme Heat Preparedness Plan by the Arizona Department of Health Services;
- Expanded awareness and availability of cooling centers statewide;
- Researchers at Knowledge Exchange for Resilience at ASU identified heat vulnerability as more severe for residents of mobile and manufactured homes and have developed recommendations for how to address gaps that make this problem more acute.
- Tucson has created a Heat Action Roadmap which establishes a series of goals that will make the community more resilient to extreme heat vulnerability.
- The National Integrated Heat Health Information System interagency released the first-ever national heat strategy