How Phoenix is dealing with its record-breaking heatwave

A homeless person adjusts a friend’s tent to help increase shade cover in a section of The Zone, Phoenix’s largest homeless encampment.

Mario Tama/Getty Images

“Record breaking” loses some of its wow factor when that record just keeps getting broken. Tuesday marks 26 consecutive days in Phoenix, Az. with a temperature over 110 degrees.

Who are they?

• There are roughly 1.6 million people living in Phoenix, and nearly 5 million people in the greater Phoenix metro area.
• Phoenix is known for being hot, but this July has been distinct — not just for the top temperatures, but the consistency of this heatwave. July 2022 had an average temperature of 95.3. One forecast, as reported by The Washington Post, finds Phoenix could end this July with a record average temperature of 102.7.

What’s the big deal? This kind of heat isn’t just uncomfortable, it can be deadly.

• So far this year, 18 people have died from heat-associated deaths, and 69 more deaths are under investigation, according to Maricopa County’s weekly heat report.
• “It feels like an oven,” says Eric Brickley, of Feed Phoenix. The community organization has been setting up hydration stations around the city, delivering ice and water to the homeless population, and anyone who needs it. “It is basically the only thing that keeps someone from perishing. Some of the places people are living are so hot and deadly that without ice, even in the shade, they will die.”
• A new study finds the heatwaves across the U.S. and Europe right now would be “virtually impossible” without the influence of climate change.