Final 12 months was the most well liked but recorded around the globe, and in Santa Clara County 38 deaths have been decided to be heat-related, after a number of warmth waves introduced each day excessive temperatures in San Jose above 100° in July, and once more in October.
On July 6 alone, three deaths have been attributed to excessive warmth within the county. Total, the dying toll from final 12 months’s warmth is a large enhance from the 13 whole warmth deaths reported within the county over the earlier six years, from 2018 to 2023.
Of these 2024 warmth deaths, 27 have been in San Jose, 3 in Mountain View, 2 in Milpitas, and one every in Gilroy, Los Altos, Morgan Hill, Palo Alto, Santa Clara and Sunnyvale, in response to information from Santa Clara County Medical Examiner-Coroner’s Workplace. There have been additionally 2 warmth deaths in Alameda County final 12 months.
San Mateo County didn’t establish any warmth deaths in 2024, or within the previous years, however did report 3 warmth deaths in 2017, when a September warmth wave killed over a dozen folks within the area.
“In the last couple years, we’ve seen the most extreme heats on record,” mentioned Dr. Grant Lipman, an emergency room doctor with Santa Clara Valley Healthcare. “And with these heat events, we’re certainly seeing a lot of heat illness in the emergency room.”
Lipman, who has completed analysis on warmth sickness, says some teams are extra in danger: unhoused folks, those that work exterior, the very previous and the very younger.
Lipman mentioned his analysis has proven that among the finest methods to chill somebody down is cold-water immersion. “We put them in a body bag, we fill it with ice,” Lipman mentioned, describing the strategy he has used. “In about 10 minutes, we drop their temperature, we dry them off, zip up the bag and throw it out,” he mentioned.
Now, as spring showers and April flowers flip to hotter and longer days across the Bay Space, Lipman mentioned folks ought to bear in mind to drink water when they’re thirsty, to replenish electrolytes with salty snacks, and get out of the solar in the event that they really feel overheated.
“The number one diagnostic warning signal is if someone is confused,” Lipman mentioned, of when to hunt medical care.
When folks can’t or don’t observe these precautions, their warmth sickness can change into lethal, and it’s an rising concern as these excessive warmth occasions change into extra widespread due to local weather change.
On July 3 final 12 months, as temperatures topped 100 levels in San Jose, California’s Insurance coverage Commissioner Ricardo Lara launched an evaluation of the hidden prices of maximum warmth within the state. The report discovered that between the seven excessive warmth occasions they investigated, it price an estimated $7.7 billion to authorities and business. “Excessive warmth is a silent, escalating catastrophe that threatens our well being, financial system, and lifestyle in California,” Lara mentioned when the report was launched.
The health worker’s workplace introduced that they have been investigating 19 deaths as presumably heat-related in July, however it could possibly take weeks or months for dying investigations to be accomplished. Ultimately, they decided that 21 deaths within the county in July have been heat-related. “The Office of the Medical Examiner evaluates a variety of factors when determining whether fatalities are caused by heat,” a spokesperson wrote in an e mail.
