WASHINGTON — David Hom suffered from diabetes and felt nauseated before he went out to hang his laundry in 108-degree weather, another day in Arizona's record-smashing, unrelenting July
And more than two dozen doctors, public health experts, and meteorologists told the AP that last year's figure was only a fraction of the real death toll. Coroner, hospital, ambulance and weather records show America's Ebi said in the last few years, the heat “seems like it's coming faster. It seems like it's more severe than we expected."Last summer's heat wave killed differently than past ones that triggered mass deaths in northern cities where people weren't used to the high temperatures and air conditioning wasn't common. Several hundreds died in the Pacific Northwest in 2021, in Philadelphia in 1998 and in Chicago in 1995.
Three months after being evicted from her home, 64-year-old Diana Smith was found dead in the back of her car. Her cause of death was methamphetamine and fentanyl, worsened by heat exposure, Phoenix's medical examiner ruled. Across five southern states, the average rate of emergency department visits for heat illness in the summer of 2023 was over double that of the previous five summers, according to an analysis of data from the CDC.