If it feels like summers are getting longer and hotter, it’s not your imagination. This past July 21 was the hottest day ever recorded in human history, following the hottest thirteen-straight months scientists have ever seen. Extreme heat is melting the snowpack in the Cascades, scorching lands and forests across the state, and warming waters off our coast.
Extreme heat is now the leading weather-related cause of death in the United States. Several Oregon cities have already seen the mercury soar into the triple digits this summer, heartbreakingly claiming the lives of at least ten Oregonians. We’re now enduring what used to be once-in-a-decade heatwaves at least once a year – and our communities are paying the price.
In 2023, heat was responsible for an estimated 11,000 deaths across the U.S. – with several states recording more heat-related deaths than any time in the past 40 years. The Oregon Department of Energy reports that 58 percent of residents live in housing without adequate cooling equipment. To install permanent equipment to properly cool these homes’ full living space is prohibitively expensive for many Oregon families and would cost over $1 billion statewide. Even worse, low-income neighborhoods tend to have more heat-trapping pavement and fewer parks and green spaces to provide shade or tree cover.