Good morning, and welcome to the Indy Environment newsletter. I’m Amy Alonzo, the environment reporter for The Indy.
To get this newsletter in your inbox, subscribe here.
With just two months until the winter solstice, temperatures are finally cooling off, a relief from the relentless heat Nevadans experienced this summer.
From July through September, Las Vegas recorded 74 days above 100 degrees , making it the hottest summer period since record keeping began in 1937.
The city easily broke its own heat record July 7, when temperatures reached a scorching 120 degrees.
In Northern Nevada, Reno set its own record by recording four consecutive days with temperatures of 105 degrees.
Nevadans across the state suffered.
Along with the scorching temperatures, state officials recorded a substantial increase in the number of people seeking treatment for heat-related illness.
There were 28 percent more visits to emergency rooms this summer than there were during the summer of 2023, according to a first-of-its-kind report issued by the Office of State Epidemiology . The 3,750 visits made for heat-related illnesses this year — considered everything from mild cramps to potentially deadly conditions such as heat stroke — from May 1 through Sept. 22 were also the highest number of visits recorded in the last five years.