Firefighters in Phoenix administer fluids to a person having trouble breathing during a heat wave in 2023. During hot months, Phoenix’s Maricopa County publishes weekly reports on known and suspected heat fatalities.
Photographer: Caitlin O'Hara/BloombergNo One Knows Exactly How Many People Are Dying From Extreme Heat
Rising temperatures are killing a growing number of people around the world. Academics, doctors and government officials are struggling to keep track.
When officials in Miami-Dade County wanted to figure out how many people there were dying from extreme heat, they turned to Christopher Ueijo.
A geographer at Florida State University, Ueijo used temperature data and death records to determine that, between 2015 and 2019, heat killed an average of 34 people a year in the county who wouldn’t have died otherwise. His estimate was more than 10 times higher than the official figures: Over the same time period, Miami-Dade had classified just two deaths as heat-related.