Daytime highs routinely exceeding 115 degrees across the Phoenix area have not abated, but state and city officials say they are seeing a decrease in heat-related fatalities for the first time in several years. The reduction comes amid a set of targeted efforts intended to protect the state’s most vulnerable residents from prolonged, often deadly, stretches of extreme temperatures in the Sonoran Desert.
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A digital billboard in an Arizona city displays 118°F, illustrating the extreme temperatures residents face as the state addresses heat-related risks.
City leaders in Phoenix have taken steps to institutionalize a response to sustained dangerous heat by creating an office focused specifically on addressing those conditions. Officials say that office, combined with other measures, has helped produce what the city’s mayor described as a “bend in the curve” of rising heat fatalities over the last two years. Mayor Kate Gallego highlighted one concrete indicator of progress: a decrease in the number of occasions emergency teams needed to apply the cold water immersion treatment protocol used for very severe street heat stroke patients.
Although the decline in deaths offers a rare piece of good news in a worsening climate trend, Gallego and other officials cautioned that heat-related emergencies still represent a significant public health threat. Phoenix faces an urban heat island effect in which large amounts of concrete and asphalt absorb heat throughout the day and release it slowly overnight, keeping low temperatures unusually high. That phenomenon leaves nighttime readings often close to 100 degrees, limiting relief at hours when bodies ordinarily cool down and recover.
The effects of soaring temperatures extend beyond emergency rooms and coroner reports. State legislators and local officials say they are hearing from frontline workers who see the impacts in classrooms and neighborhoods. Representative Nancy Gutierrez, D-Tucson and assistant minority leader of the Arizona House, said teachers in northern Arizona have reported rising student absences, diminished concentration in the classroom and increased skirmishes among students. The teachers told her many schools and homes in that region lack air conditioning because, until recently, it had not been necessary. Those conditions, Gutierrez said, have left classrooms sweltering and without adequate ways to cool the space.
Lawmakers also connected the heat crisis to Arizona’s housing challenges. Senator Lauren Kuby, D-Tempe, pointed to the tightening rental market and shortages of available housing as compounding the risks posed by extreme heat. She emphasized that finding an affordable, habitable rental or apartment is becoming more difficult for low-income residents. “Every Arizonan deserves their home and their rental home, their apartment to be safe to live in and protect them from dangerous indoor temperatures during extreme heat,” Kuby said, adding that safe housing is now closely tied to public health and climate concerns.
Public health authorities and international organizations underscore those on-the-ground reports. The World Health Organization has identified heat stress as a leading cause of weather-related deaths globally and notes that extreme heat can worsen a range of underlying medical conditions, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, mental health disorders and asthma. Local charts tracing heat-related deaths over recent decades show the long-term upward trend that officials say they are working to reverse even as temperatures remain extreme.
Chart of heat-related deaths among Arizona residents (1999–2023), used to illustrate trends and the state's efforts to track and reduce fatal heat incidents.
Officials say the recent drop in fatalities or steadying of death counts should not be mistaken for a resolution of the problem. While interventions and the creation of specialized city offices are credited with measurable improvements in some emergency responses, leaders continue to frame extreme heat as an ongoing public health emergency that intersects with housing, infrastructure and social vulnerability. Emergency protocols, municipal planning and outreach to at-risk communities remain central elements of the state’s response as Arizona confronts another season of dangerously high temperatures.
Preliminary 2025 data from Governor Katie Hobbs showed statewide heat-related deaths dropping to 667 from 997 in 2024, while Maricopa County recorded 405 deaths after 645 in 2023. However, by early July 2026 the county had 18 confirmed heat deaths with 215 under investigation, outpacing the prior year as federal ARPA relief funding ends. (Arizona Governor’s Office, Maricopa County reports, LA Times)
Maricopa County’s April 2026 2025 Annual Heat Report counted 430 heat‑related deaths in 2025 (the county’s second consecutive year‑over‑year decline), noting that about 74% of those deaths occurred outdoors and that Phoenix accounted for 233 of the county’s heat‑related fatalities; roughly 60% of decedents were aged 50 or older.
The county report says people experiencing homelessness represented the largest single living‑situation category, making up about 48–49% of heat‑related deaths in 2025, and that among indoor fatalities roughly 23% occurred in RVs or mobile homes while many indoor cases involved nonfunctioning or turned‑off air‑conditioning.
Maricopa County has also warned that 2026 will be the final year that expanded heat‑relief operations are supported by American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding, even as the county expands 2‑1‑1 call‑center support, additional cooling sites and overnight respite centers for the current heat season.