PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona’s largest county is announcing the first recorded heat-related death of the year. The Maricopa County Department of Public Health said Tuesday the death was of an older man.
There were a record 323 heat deaths in the county last year. Summer temperatures in Phoenix and other Maricopa County cities regularly soar into the triple digits.
People suffer heat-associated illness when their bodies cannot properly cool off. While most heat-related deaths occur in July and August, they are seen as early as April and as late as October. Last summer was among the hottest for the county on record.
