Maricopa County details 2025 heat toll and expands 2026 relief plan

Maricopa County Public Health presented the Board of Supervisors with its 2025 heat-season findings and a 2026 heat-response plan on March 23, telling the board the county recorded 427 confirmed heat-related deaths with one investigation pending.

The presentation, led by Jeanine Fowler, executive director for public health, and Dr. Nick Staab, the county’s chief medical officer, emphasized that elevated overnight lows were a major risk factor for heat fatalities and that vulnerable groups—people experiencing homelessness and people using substances—accounted for a disproportionate share of fatalities. "There are a total of 427 confirmed with one investigation pending," Staab said, and staff noted the figure is preliminary pending final analysis.

Why it matters: County officials said many deaths result from cumulative heat exposure because people without cooled indoor space cannot recover overnight. The county also highlighted a 30% decrease in confirmed heat deaths from 2024 to 2025, while noting 2025 still ranked among the warmest summers on record.

Key findings and numbers: Presenters described demographic patterns—an overrepresentation of people aged 35–64 and about three-quarters of deaths among men—and reported that 64% of cases involved people using substances and roughly 50% involved people experiencing homelessness. The county showed a ZIP-code map indicating higher counts along the I‑10 and I‑17 corridors but stressed that deaths occurred across the county.

Relief network and operations: Fowler described the Heat Relief Network that supported more than 100 site operations in 2025, including 122 hydration stations, 97 cooling centers, 26 respite centers (which permit lying down and longer stays), donation centers and 108 partner organizations. The county said it collected more than 4,000 site surveys to monitor usage and operational strain.

Access and transportation: The county credited a partnership with 211 and Lyft for nearly 8,000 rides to cooling centers in 2025 and the distribution of about 30,000 durable 211 cards to help people find sites without internet access. Fowler said limiting rides to the nearest cooling center, rather than allowing unrestricted choice, helped reduce per-ride costs.

Plans for 2026: The county intends to continue funding 24 sites supported by ARPA dollars, perform site visits to ensure map accuracy, expand family-specific respite centers with faith-based partners (Arizona Faith Network) and pilot transport linkages from intake/transfer/relief centers. The county also plans to deploy Narcan at all cooling and respite centers using opioid-settlement funds and to seek foundation and private support as ARPA and some grants sunset.

Data and surveillance improvements: Dr. Staab and staff said they will pursue better linkage with pre-hospital EMS data and the Office of the Medical Examiner to speed analysis and to study out-of-season heat impacts; they also acknowledged syndromic surveillance for heat-related illness lacks occupation and other individual-level details and that further case-level review is planned.

Supervisors’ requests and next steps: Supervisors pressed staff for a clear accounting of the total funding package—current ARPA, CDC grants and opioid-settlement dollars—so the board can see what will continue and what will end when one-time funds expire. Staff agreed to provide a consolidated funding breakdown and a slide showing what funding can be relied on going forward.

The meeting adjourned to an executive session after the board unanimously approved a motion to convene the closed session.