Surviving Extreme Heat
“Like being on the edge of death if you go for a walk.”
That’s how my colleague Jack Healy described living in Phoenix, where it has reached 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43 degrees Celsius) or higher for 13 consecutive days, with no end in sight.
Jack moved to Phoenix in 2021, chasing stories about the fast-growing American West. And this week, he filed a remarkable article about the withering heat wave currently scorching the Southwest.
He wrote: “Summers in Phoenix are now a brutal endurance match. As the climate warms, forecasters say that dangerous levels of heat crank up earlier in the year, last longer — often well past Halloween — and lock America’s hottest big city in a sweltering straitjacket.
“In triple-digit heat, monkey bars singe children’s hands, water bottles warp and seatbelts feel like hot irons. Devoted runners strap on headlamps to go jogging at 4 a.m., when it is still only 90 degrees, come home drenched in sweat and promptly roll down the sun shutters. Neighborhoods feel like ghost towns at midday, with rumbling rooftop air-conditioners offering the only sign of life.”