When the sun rose over Phoenix a little past 5:30 a.m. on Monday, July 22, nobody yet knew the day would end as the hottest in the recorded history of the planet.
It often feels like that in Phoenix, where the sun’s unforgiving rays turn up the heat early in the morning, baking the streets and sidewalks, where people teeter on the edge of what humans can handle.
Most make it through. They adapt. Others fight to survive and some don’t, often society’s most vulnerable. In 2023, 645 people died of heat or heat-related causes in Maricopa County. By mid-August this year, 114 people had died and authorities were investigating another 465 deaths.
It has always been hot in Phoenix, America’s hottest big city. But the numbers don’t lie: It is getting even hotter, the high temperatures pushed higher by climate change, the lows rising with urban growth.
The night before that Monday was a rare moment of respite. On the evening of July 21, a storm blew through, bringing torrential rain to some neighborhoods and dusty winds to others.