![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() But the heat this year, especially the longevity of it, is far from normal. These three parks are also responsible for more than half of the 68 heat-related deaths reported by the park service since 2007.Īnd that’s no surprise – all three parks are located in the nation’s oven, the Southwest, and all but one of the deaths happened west of the Mississippi River. Still, the current statistics offer a glimpse into the deadly potential of this unrelenting heat, especially in its epicenter: the Southwest.Īll of this year’s suspected heat-related deaths took place in just three national parks: Grand Canyon, Death Valley and Big Bend. Two of this year’s five deaths happened after the park service provided the data to CNN in early July. They need to collect and corroborate death reports with hundreds of individual parks and the equally vast and complex web of local and state officials that medically determine cause of death.Īs a result, some of the most recent death statistics from 2020 to 2023 could “change significantly,” park spokespeople said. The National Park Service faces the same challenges, and told CNN that the true toll of this year’s extreme heat and recent past heat may be even higher. Is this extreme weather the 'new normal?' There's no such thing, some scientists say REUTERS/Stelios Misinas Stelios Misinas/Reuters That kind of heat has proven an indiscriminate killer in the nation’s parks:įlames engulf a house as a wildfire burns in Saronida, near Athens, Greece, July 17, 2023. The deaths reported so far are still under investigation, but all five died in temperatures that hit 100 degrees, a searing microcosm of a much more widespread pattern of extreme heat that has broken more than 3,000 high temperature records across the US since early June. No other year had five heat-related deaths by July 23, park mortality data that dates to 2007 shows, and the deadliest month for heat in parks – August – is yet to come. More people are suspected to have died since June 1 from heat-related causes in national parks than an average entire year, according to park service press releases and preliminary National Park Service data provided to CNN. Extreme heat appears to be killing people in America’s national parks at an alarming pace this year, highlighting both its severity and the changing calculus of personal risk in the country’s natural places as climate change fuels more weather extremes. ![]()
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