Important Takeaways:

• Almost 100 suspected heat deaths are attributed to a single week, from July 7 to 13, when temperatures reached 118 degrees.
• A heat report dashboard run by Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix and is the fourth most-populated county in the United States with 4.4 million people, showed 322 deaths are suspected to have been a result of heat-related illness in the year to July 13 — a huge increase on last year.
• There have been 23 confirmed deaths in the county related to heat this year, the data shows, 17 of which were directly caused by heat and 6 which were “heat-contributed.”
• There have been at least 73 heat-related deaths across the U.S. this year so far, according to an ongoing count by NBC News.
• The DHH said a quarter of last year’s deaths happened indoors, with air conditioning units not working properly for two thirds of those victims.
• The heat dashboard was launched by the county in May to better track illness and death as a result of extreme temperatures.

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