It comes after years of complaints from prisoners about dangerous temperatures during the state’s brutal summer heat waves, warnings by advocates that the problem will only get worse as the planet warms and the death of an incarcerated woman last year during California’s hottest month on record — which officials from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation insist was unrelated to the heat.

But don’t expect the prisons to become air conditioned anytime soon. 

The pilot, approved by the Legislature this year amid a budget deficit, is a limited test of cooling systems and new insulation over the next four years at just three of the department’s 31 prisons. Results of the test are not expected until mid-2029. 

The corrections department has pointed to the pilot as a step toward addressing the heat problem as it faces pressure from activists, lawmakers and judges to do more. Critics say it falls short, since it only applies to parts of facilities that house about 8,000 of California’s 91,000 inmates and does not require any future concrete action. The department is currently required in a federal court case to protect inmates with mental illness from heat risks, and uses a decades-old protocol to do so. 

With temperatures in some prisons reaching 95 degrees each summer, some prisoners’ advocates say the only safe solution to protect all prisoners is to install air conditioning statewide. 

“Extreme heat poses a serious health risk to all in CDCR,” said Lily Harvey, senior staff attorney at the Prison Law Office, which represents inmates in several federal class-action court cases covering health care in state prisons. “Air-conditioned housing units are the only effective way to protect against that risk.”

But department attorneys have pushed back, arguing in court that some facilities in more temperate areas might not need air conditioning. They have put the price tag of “statewide implementation of effective air cooling mechanisms” at $6 billion, but have refused to provide a cost breakdown of that figure. 

Department officials declined to be interviewed for this story. Instead, in response to a detailed list of questions, department spokesperson Mary Xjimenez sent a written statement saying the heat problem can’t be solved statewide by installing air conditioning alone. For facilities that will need air conditioning, the department will also have to fix corroded roofs and other structural issues. 

The pilot will test different ways — air conditioning, insulation, or some combination of the two — to reduce indoor prison temperatures to 78 degrees at Kern Valley State Prison, Central California Women’s Facility and the California State Prison in Los Angeles County. 

Most prisons currently rely on fans or evaporative cooling units (known commonly as swamp coolers), that have limited effectiveness when temperatures near triple digits. Xjimenez said the department will use the results of the pilot “to recommend a statewide strategy for scaling air cooling in a timely, efficient and cost-effective manner.” She pointed to $246 million worth of cooling improvements the department has started at five prisons over the past five years, though not all cover the cells where prisoners are housed.

In the meantime, officials point to what they call their successful heat protocol, required by the court, which they use to monitor inmates who are most at risk of heat illness. From May to October, staff at every prison must record indoor and outdoor temperatures daily, move at-risk inmates indoors and, on the hottest days, check on them every few hours for signs of heat stroke. 

But a monitor for the federal courts this year found gaping holes in its usage, calling consistent implementation of the rules “elusive.” 

At half of the 14 prisons he toured, monitor Matthew Lopes found staff who were unaware of the protocol. He questioned the accuracy of officers’ temperature logs at two prisons; at three, he found broken or missing thermometers. 

While some prison officials “commendably” go out of their way to ease conditions during heat waves, he wrote, others are “failing to approach compliance.”

‘There’s really no reprieve’

Extreme heat is warping life for all Californians, but state prisoners will be hit especially hard.  Many are housed in inland or desert environments where temperatures are slated to rise more than the statewide average over the next few decades.

There were 182 days last year in which at least one of the state’s 31 prisons was experiencing weather hotter than 90 degrees — amounting to half the year, according to a June CDCR report. On 46 days last year, at least one prison was hotter than 95 degrees indoors.

Cal/OSHA only recently began requiring indoor workplaces to be lower than 87 degrees and to provide cooling areas that are no hotter than 82 degrees, but correctional facilities were exempted because of how much it would cost the state to comply. Some experts recommend cooling homes to at most 78 degrees during heat waves to avoid health risks.

CDCR instituted its summer heat protocol under federal court order after three inmates died in their cells of hyperthermia at the California Medical Facility psychiatric prison in Vacaville in 1991. The men, all in their 30s, had been taking psychotropic medications to treat mental illness, which elevate patients’ body temperatures.

Under the protocol, prison staff are required to share a list of inmates who take heat-sensitive medications every summer.

When outdoor temperatures reach 90 degrees, they are supposed to activate Stage 1, moving heat-sensitive inmates indoors. When indoor temperatures reach 90 degrees, they call Stage 2, giving those inmates more access to showers and ice. Indoor temperatures of 95 degrees should trigger Stage 3, during which medical staff are mandated to check on inmates every two hours to monitor for signs of heat illness.

Even outside the cells, heat affects every corner of prison life, the court-appointed monitor Lopes has found. 

Heat forces staff to shuffle counseling to less private spaces, disrupts group therapy and when inmates are forced inside during heat alerts, they sometimes lose out on programs and recreation time to stay in even hotter cells. 

One prisoner at the California Rehabilitation Center in Norco declined to take an antipsychotic medication urged by his psychiatrist because he didn’t want to lose his maintenance job over heat concerns. 

In their housing units, there’s little inmates can do other than take showers and scoop ice when officers provide it. Concrete, uninsulated cells can be as much as 21 degrees hotter than common areas, the department has noted. 

Inmates may keep a personal fan in their cells; it’s available for $27 from the commissary. An inmate with no family support would have to work a minimum-wage prison job for about 4 weeks to afford one, estimates Bharat Venkat, a UCLA anthropologist who has researched the effects of heat on incarcerated people.

Lawrence Cox, an advocate with Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, spent years incarcerated in Calipatria State Prison, in the Imperial County desert and California State Prison Solano, in Vacaville. He and his cellmate would wet their bedsheets in the sink to try to keep cool, but with little ventilation, the cell only became more humid, and he developed heat rashes that he said left lasting marks on his skin.

“I have never sweated so much, continuously, all day, just simply by sitting there,” he said. “There’s really no reprieve.”

The heat protocol’s success depends on who’s on shift. Over the years, the monitor has found inconsistent record-keeping and compliance, according to thousands of pages of court records reviewed by CalMatters. 

Though some facilities are testing digital temperature use, most prison staff maintain outdoor and indoor records on paper, in handwritten logs. A department spokesperson said supervisors are required to verify those records daily. 

Reviewing logs from the Central California Women’s Facility in Madera County obtained through a public records request, CalMatters found days in which prison staff did not record any indoor temperatures. Two days in 2022 the same indoor temperature was recorded at one of the facility’s housing units every three hours for the entire day, in the same handwriting.

A death at California’s largest women’s prison

Every summer, incarcerated women at the Chowchilla prison flood the phone lines of community advocacy groups and attorneys’ offices, raising alarms about hot conditions. About 2,000 women are incarcerated across 15 housing units at the facility, which opened in 1990.

Every summer from 2020 through 2024, Chowchilla saw at least seven days that reached or surpassed 105 degrees; last summer set a record at 28 days.

Adrienne Boulware, who had been incarcerated there for about a decade by 2024, told her family each summer that the prison’s evaporative cooling units weren’t working, said her daughter Michaela Nelson. 

“We were usually worried about her every summer,” Nelson said.

Even driving through the Central Valley to visit Boulware felt “treacherous” because of the heat, Nelson said. The family had helped her buy a fan for her cell, and she took showers to cool off, but in phone calls to her daughters in the summer of 2024, Boulware described the prison as “hot as hell.”

Boulware raised Nelson and three siblings in Sacramento. She was serving a 15 years-to-life sentence for second-degree murder in the 2011 beating death of a man she and another woman argued with in an abandoned car wash in north Sacramento. Nelson said her mother had been steadily repaying her debt to society, taking classes and running a Bible study. In recent years Boulware had started going to parole hearings, so her family was hoping for her release. Nelson, a home care worker in Georgia, planned to move back to California.

Like much of the state, Chowchilla was three days into a searing two-week heat wave during last year’s long Independence Day weekend when Boulware, 47, collapsed.

On July 4, when temperatures were as high as 109 degrees outside, the swamp cooler in Boulware’s building was “blowing warm air but was fixed the same day,” CDCR attorney Melissa Bentz wrote in an email later included in court records. Staff placed coolers of ice water and “large industrial floor fans” in the housing units. 

On July 5, outside temperatures reached 108. A lieutenant at the prison told the Madera County Sheriff’s Office that Boulware, who court records say was prescribed the mood stabilizer lithium, was “outside in the yard most of the day,” according to a coroner’s report. After they returned inside, dorm-mates found Boulware on the floor of the shower. 

Officers were unsure if she was having a seizure or overdose. She was given four rounds of Narcan and taken to a hospital in Merced, where she died early the next morning. 

Amid a public outcry in the days that followed, department spokespeople downplayed the role of heat in Boulware’s death, telling reporters it “appears to be the result of an ongoing medical condition and not heat-related.” 

A toxicology report showed fentanyl was found in her blood. The Madera County coroner this year listed the cause of death as undetermined.

Experts say it can often be hard to identify heat as a cause in deaths and medical events, especially when people have other health conditions. 

Advocates and Boulware’s family believe her death was preventable. Records show the department itself suspected heat from the beginning. 

In prison staff’s first phone call to Boulware’s family before she was taken to the hospital on July 5, Nelson said, they told her sister she had suffered a heat stroke. In an email to plaintiffs’ attorneys and the court monitor a few days after the death, a prison medical provider wrote that the causes of death were listed as loss of consciousness, seizures, “heat stroke and possible overdose.” The email was included in court records.

An alarmed plaintiffs’ attorney, Steven Fama, wrote to the court monitor on July 8 asking for an investigation. Citing Boulware’s prison medical records, Fama noted her body temperature was 41.5 degrees Celsius when she arrived at the hospital — 106.7 degrees Fahrenheit, eight degrees higher than the normal human body temperature. 

He also raised more questions: Why, he wrote, was an inmate who was prescribed the heat-sensitive medication lithium “outside all day” during a triple-digit heat wave?

Nelson said her family is still waiting for an answer. They also haven’t received her mother’s belongings — years of letters, photographs, everything the family bought her from the prison commissary and her mother’s Bible. Asked by CalMatters for comment, CDCR said it is following department procedures for returning Boulware’s belongings. Officials declined to comment on her death, deferring to the coroner’s report.   

“It’s hard to not know,” Nelson said. “It’s always better to know than to just be wondering, wondering if she suffered, and how things could have been different.”

Increasing pressure on the state

Seven months after Boulware died, in February of this year, court-appointed prison monitor Matthew Lopes wrote that her death was a “tragic reminder of the very real harm that can result from failing to properly monitor and treat patients on heat-sensitive medication.” 

But corrections department attorneys urged him not to include that in his report evaluating CDCR’s heat protocol. In court records, staff attorney Nick Weber called it “charged language,” noting that, as of this spring, the coroner had not yet documented an official cause of death.

Since Boulware’s death a year ago, advocates have used the incident to demand that CDCR do more to protect incarcerated people. 

Earlier this year, activists pleaded with the Cal/OSHA standards board to adopt a promised new workplace standard for state prisons. They argued that many prison inmates work in the facilities, whether in kitchens, facility maintenance, or as part of state programs that place inmates in jobs with private contractors. 

Any new rule would require a drafting and public hearings process which can take years. Spokespeople for both the department and the Cal/OSHA board said they are in “discussions” about a rule, but no public process has begun.

Cox’s group, Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, sponsored a bill this year that would have forced the state to lower temperatures in all the prisons and require digitized, live temperature monitoring. The bill sailed through state Assembly committees and didn’t garner any official opposition. 

But with the corrections department estimating it would cost between $10 billion and $20 billion to make the changes, author Assemblymember Celeste Rodriguez said she knew it would be a tough sell amid a budget deficit. Rodriguez, a Democrat from Chino, agreed to hold it and revisit it next year. 

She said she’s encouraged by the pilot program the department is starting, but wants to keep the legislation alive so officials don’t lose urgency to address the heat. 

“Managing litigation costs is a factor when we consider infrastructure projects,” she said of the potential cost of installing air conditioning across prisons. 

Meanwhile, in a class action federal court case on medical care in California prisons, plaintiffs representing virtually every prisoner in the state have sought to bring heat issues before a judge.

They’ve pointed to a case in Texas in which a judge ruled in March that the lack of systemwide air conditioning there violates constitutional protections against cruel and unusual punishment. 

The department has objected to the comparison. Unlike Texas, attorneys for the CDCR wrote in June, California prisons have experienced “very few sentinel events (such as deaths) among its patient population directly related to extreme heat.” 

But in California, U.S. District Judge Jon S. Tigar has expressed interest in the issue, and directed the department to provide the plaintiffs data on the matter.

“I want to say this very clearly, this is a medical issue,” he said in a June conference with attorneys on all sides. “This is a big issue, that’s only going to get bigger with the passage of time.”

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Officials with Cal Fire Riverside County said Soboba and Gilman Springs roads on Sunday around 2 p.m. The area is adjacent to the Golden Era Golf Course in the San Jacinto area. 

The fire, being called the “Record Fire,” had reached 517 acres with 65% containment as of Monday evening, officials with CAL Fire said. 

“Helicopters will actively support ground crews by conducting water drops to cool down hot spots and slow the fire’s spread. However, with extreme heat in the area, with temperatures expected to reach near 110°F, conditions remain challenging. The high temperatures and dry conditions will make firefighting efforts more difficult,” fire authorities said on social media. 

Amid the blazing temperatures, six firefighters were treated for what authorities described as “minor medical symptoms.” 

“Overnight, the fire exhibited minimal growth, allowing firefighters to make significant progress in increasing containment. Firefighters will continue to work throughout the day, strengthening containment lines and addressing any remaining hotspots,” fire authorities said in an update Monday morning. 

Evacuation Warning

Evacuation warnings were issued in the area earlier in the week, but had been lifted by Tuesday night.

“Please use caution when returning to the area as fire resources continue working to fully contain the fire,” CAL Fire said. 

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The whirling air currents deepened and extended the marine layer farther inland into coastal valleys, helping temperatures drop about 10 degrees below Friday’s, said Robbie Munroe, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard. The slightly cooler weather is expected to continue until midweek.

The cooling trend prompted the Weather Service to call off excessive-heat advisories and warnings in many of the coastal valleys, but they remained in place for deserts, mountains and the Santa Clarita Valley, he said.

Temperatures in the San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys had been expected to range from the mid-90s to a high of 105 degrees, but fell below that on Saturday.

Chatsworth hit a high of 92 degrees on Saturday, down from 109 degrees Friday; Saugus cooled down to 100 degrees from 118 the previous day; and Woodland Hills dropped to 96 from 106 in that period. Palm Springs also cooled to 114 degrees Saturday, down 10 degrees from Friday.

Downtown Los Angeles hit 87 degrees Saturday, about the same as its high on Friday.

But broiling heat shattered records in other areas Saturday. Palmdale tied its all-time record of 115 degrees. Death Valley set a new record for July 6 with a high of 128 degrees.

Extreme heat, low humidity and strong winds prompted officials to issue a red flag warning through the weekend along the 5 Freeway corridor and in the Antelope Valley foothills, said Joe Sirard, another National Weather Service meteorologist in Oxnard.

“Fires are dangerous anywhere, but this is really a heightened danger,” he said, adding that blazes in these conditions “will spread rapidly — explosively — and it’s extremely dangerous for firefighters.”

Hampered by scorching temperatures, crews continued to battle numerous wildfires across California on Saturday. The largest is the Basin fire in Fresno County, which started June 26. The fire, which had burned 14,027 acres, was 60% contained Saturday afternoon.

Crews were beginning to get the upper hand on the French fire, which began on the Fourth of July and had threatened the town of Mariposa outside Yosemite National Park. The 908-acre fire, which temporarily triggered mandatory evacuations and closed State Route 140 leading into the park, was 35% contained on Saturday.

In Southern California, the Lake fire in Santa Barbara County swelled to 12,271 acres late Saturday afternoon with zero containment, officials said. The blaze, near Zaca Lake in the Santa Ynez Valley, triggered an evacuation order early Saturday for an area north of Zaca Lake Road, east of Foxen Canyon Road and south of the Sisquoc River.

Temperatures in the 90s and very low humidity overnight Friday fueled the fire’s spread, while a layer of warm air trapped its smoke close to the ground, Scott Safechuck, a spokesman for the Santa Barbara County Fire Department, said in a post on the social media platform X.

Farther south, the Rancho fire, which was reported Friday evening, burned about 13 acres of brush along the 101 Freeway near Thousand Oaks.

Andy VanSciver, a spokesman for the Ventura County Fire Department, said in a video posted on X that the Rancho fire had been contained as of around 7 p.m. Friday. After stopping its forward progress, firefighters worked overnight to extinguish hot spots, he said.

In Riverside County, firefighters managed to get control of the 70-acre Hills fire near Juniper Springs, with 75% containment as of Saturday afternoon.

Authorities evacuated an area close to the fire after it broke out Friday afternoon near Juniper Flats Road and Mapes Road in Homeland. People affected by the evacuations were directed to Tahquitz High School in Hemet and the Riverside County Animal Shelter in San Jacinto.

Two fires east of Apple Valley and a small blaze near UC Riverside broke out on Saturday; the latter was soon 50% contained, according to CalFire.

Meanwhile, residents of Los Angeles County’s valleys and inland areas are urged to stay indoors during the day if possible and avoid hiking, even in areas that might seem cool at sea level.

“Even in the Santa Monica Mountains, which are close to the coast, once you get above a certain elevation, 1,500 feet, it’s going to get very, very hot,” Sirard said.

He said people should follow commonsense practices such as hydrating through the day and wearing lightweight and light-colored clothing. Sirard recommended that those who want to get some sun head to the beaches, where temperatures should range from the low 70s to the low 80s.

“If people want to beat the heat this weekend,” he said, “the coast is the place to go.”

The city of Los Angeles has four cooling centers open through the weekend where people can find relief from the heat:

• Lake View Terrace Recreation Center, 11075 Foothill Blvd., Lake View Terrace
• Mid-Valley Senior Citizen Center, 8825 Kester Ave., Panorama City
• Fred Roberts Recreation Center, 4700 S. Honduras St., Los Angeles
• Jim Gilliam Recreation Center, 400 S. La Brea Ave., Los Angeles

Los Angeles County has a network of more than 150 cooling centers, including libraries, parks and community centers, all listed here.

In the Bay Area, cool weather along the coast gave way Saturday to blistering heat in northern Sonoma and Napa counties, where temperatures were expected to climb to 110 degrees, said Nicole Sarment, a Weather Service meteorologist in San Francisco.

“There’s as much as a 50-degree variation, depending on where you are,” she said.

San Francisco was forecast to see a high of 79 degrees Saturday before dipping to 58 at night, she said. In Oakland, temperatures were expected to range from 59 to 87 degrees, while San Jose was predicted to see a low of 64 and high of 99.

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CALIFORNIA —A heat wave baked the Golden State over the weekend, causing emergency room visits to spike in parts of Southern California.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention heat health tracker data, which was updated Saturday, shows “extremely high” rates of heat-related illnesses across California. The data, based on a scale of per 100,000 visits, showed emergency room visits that exceeded the 95th percentile of what is typical.

In the Health and Human Services region that includes California, Arizona and Nevada, emergency room visits went from 204 per 100,000 residents on June 17 to 881 on Sunday.

However, despite the first heatwave of the summer, temperatures have been milder than usual, which is consistent with climate forecasts that called for a mild start to the summer followed by an above-average finish to the season. The historically hottest months are yet to come in California, and they are expected to be blistering throughout the state.

According to the Weather Channel, August will be the hottest month for the entire state.

Most of the state was under minor to no heat risk on Monday, according to the CDC, including San Francisco, San Diego, Riverside, Sonoma, Alameda and San Bernadino Counties. Los Angeles, Orange and Sacramento Counties were under moderate heat risk, meaning it was an okay day to be outside for most people.

The Central Valley, however, raised to a Major heat risk on Monday, which can lead to health impacts for everyone, the CDC said.

The National Weather Service said most of the areas hardest hit by the heat wave will begin to see relief Monday, but stifling conditions will continue in the Southeast and Southern Plains.

Temperatures along the coast remained comfortable and in the low 70s in San Francisco and Alameda in Northern California and in the high 70s in Manhattan Beach and Ventura in Southern California. Temperatures in Southern California reached over 90 degrees in Riverside and up to 106 in Palm Desert.

In the United States, extreme heat kills more people than hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, floods and other natural disasters. More than 2,300 Americans died of heat-related illnesses last year, the most in 45 years of record-keeping, according to the CDC. That’s up from about 1,700 heat-related deaths in 2022 and 1,600 in 2021.

People become ill from the heat when their bodies can’t naturally cool off due to a combination of factors, including high humidity. When the humidity is high, sweat doesn’t evaporate as quickly and keeps the body from releasing heat as fast as it may need.

Personal factors such as age, obesity, fever, dehydration, heart disease, mental illness, poor circulation, sunburn, and prescription drug and alcohol use all can affect the ability of the body to naturally cool off.

To avoid heat-related illnesses, including heat exhaustion, health officials advise people to limit time outdoors if possible during the heat of the day, and be sure to drink plenty of water and wear loose-fitting clothes and a hat.

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CAMP PENDLETON, CA—Already smokey skies were getting even hazier Thursday in Southwest Riverside County as a vegetation fire burned at Camp Pendleton.

Details about the blaze were not immediately available but fire departments in the region reported no threat to structures.

On Thursday, base officials announced on social media that a “600-acre prescribed burn was underway” but said the exercise was scheduled Friday and Saturday.

Patch reached out to the base for clarification. This story will be updated when more information is available.

Meanwhile, the South Coast Air Quality Management District has issued an Ozone Advisory effective June 21 across the region, including Southwest Riverside County. While drift smoke from nearby fires has plagued local air quality, the Ozone Advisory was instead issued ahead of extreme heat expected to bear down on the region.

“A multi-day extreme ozone (smog) event is expected due to the heat wave affecting the region,” according to the South Coast Air Quality Management District. “Air Quality Index (AQI) will likely reach Unhealthy or higher levels in inland areas of the South Coast Air Basin and in the Coachella Valley at times Friday through Tuesday and possibly beyond.”

The SCAQMD advises the following during periods of poor air quality due to ozone pollution:

• Check air quality levels and limit outdoor activities as necessary. See health recommendations for each AQI level.
• Limit the use of gasoline-powered lawn and garden equipment until evening hours.
• Conserve electricity and set your air conditioner at a higher temperature.
• Try to delay trips to the gas station and the use of household chemicals until the evening.

To view current air quality in your neighborhood, download the South Coast AQMD app or visit www.aqmd.gov/AQImap.

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RENO, Nev. (AP) — Santos Brizuela spent more than two decades laboring outdoors, persisting despite a bout of heatstroke while cutting sugarcane in Mexico and chronic laryngitis from repeated exposure to the hot sun while on various other jobs.

But last summer, while on a construction crew in Las Vegas, he reached his breaking point. Exposure to the sun made his head ache immediately. He lost much of his appetite.

Now at a maintenance job, Brizuela, 47, is able to take breaks. There are flyers on the walls with best practices for staying healthy — protections he had not been afforded before.

“Sometimes as a worker you ask your employer for protection or for health and safety related needs, and they don’t listen or follow,” he said in Spanish through an interpreter.

A historic heat wave that began blasting the Southwest and other parts of the country this summer is shining a spotlight on one of the harshest, yet least-addressed effects of U.S. climate change: the rising deaths and injuries of people who work in extreme heat, whether inside warehouses and kitchens or outside under the blazing sun. Many of them are migrants in low-wage jobs.

State and federal governments have long implemented federal procedures for environmental risks exacerbated by climate change, namely drought, flood and wildfires. But extreme heat protections have generally lagged with “no owner” in state and federal governments, said Ladd Keith, an assistant professor of planning and a research associate at the University of Arizona.

“In some ways, we have a very long way to catch up to the governance gap in treating the heat as a true climate hazard,” Keith said.

There is no federal heat standard in the U.S. despite an ongoing push from President Joe Biden’s administration to establish one. Most of the hottest U.S. states currently have no heat-specific standards either.

Instead, workers in many states who are exposed to extreme heat are ostensibly protected by what is known as the “general duty clause,” which requires employers to mitigate hazards that could cause serious injury or death. The clause permits state authorities to inspect work sites for violations, and many do, but there are no consistent benchmarks for determining what constitutes a serious heat hazard.

“What’s unsafe isn’t always clear,” said Juanita Constible, a senior advocate from the Natural Resources Defense Council who tracks extreme heat policy. “Without a specific heat standard, it makes it more challenging for regulators to decide, ‘OK, this employer’s breaking the law or not.’”

Many states are adopting their own versions of a federal “emphasis” program increasing inspections to ensure employers offer water, shade and breaks, but citations and enforcement still must go through the general duty clause.

Extreme heat is notably absent from the list of disasters to which the Federal Emergency Management Agency can respond. And while regional floodplain managers are common throughout the country, there are only three newly created “chief heat officer” positions to coordinate extreme heat planning, in Miami-Dade County, Phoenix and Los Angeles.

Federal experts have recommended extreme heat protections since 1972, but it wasn’t until 1997 and 2006, respectively, that Minnesota and California adopted the first statewide protections. For a long time, those states were the exception, with only a scattering of others joining them throughout the early 2000s.

But as heat waves get longer and hotter, the tide is starting to change.

“There are a lot of positive movements that give me some hope,” Keith said.

Colorado strengthened existing rules last year to require regular rest and meal breaks in extreme heat and cold and provide water and shade breaks when temperatures hit 80 degrees Fahrenheit (26.7 degrees Celsius). Washington state last month updated 15-year-old heat safety standards to lower the temperature at which cool-down breaks and other protections are required. Oregon, which adopted temporary heat protection rules in 2021, made them permanent last year.

Several other states are considering similar laws or regulations.

Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs recently announced new regulations through the heat emphasis program and declared a state of emergency over extreme heat, allowing the state to reimburse various government entities for funds spent on providing relief from high temperatures.

Nevada also adopted a version of the heat emphasis program. But a separate bill that would define what constitutes extreme heat and require employers to provide protections ultimately failed in the final month of the legislative session.

The measure faltered even after the temperature threshold for those protections was increased from 95 degrees Fahrenheit (35 degrees Celsius) to 105 (40.5 degrees Celsius). Democratic lawmakers in Nevada are now trying to pass those protections through a regulatory process before next summer.

The Biden administration introduced new regulations in 2021 that would develop heat safety standards and strengthen required protective measures for most at-risk private sector workers, but the mandates are likely subject to several more years of review. A group of Democratic U.S. Congress members introduced a bill last month that would effectively speed up the process by legislating heat standards.

The guidelines would apply to all 50 states and include private sector and select federal workers, but leave most other public sector workers uncovered. Differing conditions across states and potential discrepancies in how the federal law would be implemented make consistent state standards crucial, Constible said.

For now, protections for those workers are largely at the discretion of individual employers.

Eleazar Castellanos, who trains workers on dealing with extreme heat at Arriba Las Vegas, a nonprofit supporting migrant and low-wage employees, said he experienced two types of employers during his 20 years of working construction.

“The first version is the employer that makes sure that their workers do have access to water, shade and rest,” he said in Spanish through an interpreter. “And the second type of employer is the kind who threatens workers with consequences for asking for those kinds of preventative measures.”

Heat protection laws have faced steady industry opposition, including chambers of commerce and other business associations. They say a blanket mandate would be too difficult to implement across such a wide range of industries.

“We are always concerned about a one-size-fits-all bill like this,” Tray Abney, a lobbyist for the National Federation of Independent Businesses, told Nevada legislators.

Opinions vary on why the Nevada bill failed after passing the Senate on party lines. Some say it was a victim of partisan politics. Others say there were too many bills competing for attention in a session that meets for just four months every other year.

“It all comes down to the dollar,” said Vince Saavedra, secretary-treasurer and lobbyist for Southern Nevada Building Trades. “But I’ll challenge anybody to go work outside with any of these people, and then tell me that we don’t need these regs.”

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A federal judge has temporarily banned Sacramento from clearing homeless encampments for at least 14 days, citing the extreme heat forecast this month in California’s capital city.

Judge Troy L. Nunley in the U.S. District Court for Eastern California issued the order last week after homeless advocates argued that the city disregarded its own protocol by pushing a vulnerable population out of shaded areas during blistering heat. Advocates said clearing the camps in such weather puts homeless people in “obvious danger.”

Sacramento defines temperatures above 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32.2 Celsius) as being “excessive heat” in its protocols, the complaint reads. The temperature at the state capital is forecast to hit 90 degrees Fahrenheit or greater on 21 days in August, including nine days where the temperature is expected to reach 95 Fahrenheit (35 Celsius).

The complaint includes details about a so-called sweep in mid-July, when the temperature was 91 degrees Fahrenheit (32.8 Celsius). Officials moved about 30 people who had been sheltering under large trees, the complaint said. While Sacramento had offered homeless people to relocate to another encampment, the site was already crowded and had no shade, advocates said in the complaint. The complaint cites coverage of the sweep in the Sacramento Bee.

Other cities with large homeless populations and hot summer temperatures, like Los Angeles and Phoenix, haven’t faced similar orders not to clear encampments during heat waves. But it’s not clear if advocacy groups have sought such rulings. Unsheltered homeless people are particularly vulnerable during hot weather because of the constant exposure to the heat and sun.

“The court concludes plaintiffs’ evidence forecasting excessive heat for the upcoming weeks and detailing the risks of heat-related deaths and illnesses is sufficient to show that irreparable harm will result in the absence of injunctive relief,” Nunley wrote in his order.

It’s not the first time Nunley banned Sacramento from clearing homeless encampments. Last year, he ordered similar temporary restraining orders to halt encampment sweeps during scorching temperatures that lasted nearly two months.

All of the orders came from a lawsuit filed last June by the Sacramento Homeless Union, a homeless advocacy group, and three homeless individuals.

This year’s order was nearly identical to previous restraining orders, with Nunley drawing on the same legal analysis. He concluded that the city’s interest in clearing encampments in a heatwave is “far outweighed” by the health and welfare of homeless individuals.

Crystal Sanchez, president of the Sacramento Homeless Union, said in a statement: “We are grateful to the court for recognizing the increased risk of harm to thousands of unhoused, unsheltered residents by this cruel practice, in violation of the city’s own written protocols regarding sweeps during periods of excessive heat.”

City spokesperson Tim Swanson said the city “respects the order issued by the federal court,” but it is seeking clarification on several aspects, including why the county, also a defendant in the lawsuit, wasn’t included in the restraining order. The order only addresses the city’s conduct.

A spokesperson for the county declined to comment, saying the county doesn’t speak on pending litigation.

The court will consider extending the restraining order at a hearing this week.

Judges have been on the front lines of policy related to homeless people as friction mounts over visible tent encampments amid a severe shortage of affordable housing. Specifically, western states in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit are subject to a 2018 ruling that prohibits cities from enforcing anti-camping bans when there is nowhere indoors for a person to go.

In December, for example, a U.S. magistrate judge ordered San Francisco to stop clearing most encampments pending a lawsuit by the Coalition on Homelessness that claimed the city was not offering homeless people appropriate shelter or tagging their belongings for safekeeping as required.

The same month, a federal judge also issued an emergency injunction to stop the city of Phoenix from conducting sweeps of a large homeless encampment downtown unless the person can obtain a shelter bed, in response to a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona.

But in a separate lawsuit, a state judge in March issued an emergency injunction ordering the city to clear the encampment and siding with businesses and residents who called the encampment a dangerous public nuisance.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — With millions of Americans facing broiling heat across the Southwest, President Joe Biden on Thursday plans to announce new steps to protect workers, improve weather forecasts and make drinking water more accessible, the White House says.

He’ll be joined by the leaders of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre described the heat wave as “a difficult time” and said Biden was treating climate change with “the urgency it requires.”

The Democratic president is directing the Department of Labor to increase inspections of potentially dangerous workplaces such as farms and construction sites. He also wants heightened enforcement of heat safety violations.

As part of the initiative, the department will issue a hazard alert notifying employers and employees about ways to stay protected from extreme heat, which has killed 436 workers since 2011, according to federal statistics.

The Biden administration plans to spend $7 million to develop more detailed weather predictions to anticipate extreme weather like heat waves, plus $152 million to boost drinking water infrastructure and climate resilience in California, Colorado and Washington.

The mayors of Phoenix and San Antonio, two cities that have suffered from the heat waves, are expected to participate in the White House event virtually.

Phoenix has seen at least 26 days in a row of temperatures exceeding 110 degrees. Maricopa County, where the city is located, reported recently that there were 18 heat-associated deaths between April 11 and July 15. Another 69 deaths remain under investigation. There were 425 heat-associated deaths in the county last year.

San Antonio saw 15 straight days of 100-plus degrees. At least 13 deaths in Texas have been blamed on the extreme heat.

Thursday’s announcement follows other steps that the Biden administration has taken to adapt to increasing threats from extreme heat. Among those it is highlighting:

The Department of Labor is developing a standard for how workplaces deal with heat. The proposed rule by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration would require employers to provide adequate water and rest breaks to outdoor workers, as well as medical services and training to address signs and symptoms of heat-related illness. OSHA is holding meetings this summer to hear comments on how the heat standard would affect small businesses.

To keep low-income populations cool, the Department of Health and Human Services expanded its Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program to provide more access to air conditioning and cooling centers such as libraries, senior centers or other public buildings. The Environmental Protection Agency also has provided assistance to help communities develop cooling centers within schools.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has been helping cities and towns map “heat islands” with dense buildings and fewer trees, and the Department of Agriculture issued guidance for creating more tree canopy coverage, which helps with cooling environments.

In addition, the administration launched a website called heat.gov with interactive maps, weather forecasts and tips for keeping cool amid record-breaking heat.

More than 100 members of Congress, led by Democratic Reps. Greg Casar and Sylvia Garcia of Texas and Judy Chu of California have called on the administration to implement the new heat standard for outdoor workers as quickly as possible.

“We know extreme weather events such as heat waves are becoming more frequent and more dangerous due to climate change. Urgent action is needed to prevent more deaths,″ the lawmakers wrote in a letter Monday.

The United Farm Workers and other groups also called on OSHA to immediately issue a nationwide rule protecting outdoor workers after farm worker deaths this month in Florida and Arizona.

“Farm workers need and deserve the access to shade, water and paid breaks,’’ said UFW President Teresa Romero. “How many more workers will we let dangerous heat and callous employers kill before this nation acts?”

Douglas Parker, assistant Labor secretary for occupational safety and health, called heat illness prevention a top priority. As OSHA works toward a final rule, the agency is enhancing enforcement efforts “to make sure employers and workers understand the dangers of heat illness and how to prevent it,’’ Parker said in a statement.

Casar, a freshman lawmaker from Austin, staged a “thirst strike” on Tuesday outside the U.S. Capitol, forgoing water breaks for nearly nine hours, to protest a new Texas law that bans local governments from requiring water breaks and other safety measures for outdoor workers. Casar called the law “insane″ and accused Republican Gov. Greg Abbott of being “on the wrong side of history.” Republican lawmakers and other supporters of the law say it eliminates a patchwork of local regulations that are burdensome to businesses, and they say it won’t stop workers from taking breaks.

At least 42 workers died in Texas between 2011 and 2021 from environmental heat exposure, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“Democrats are going to stand up for common sense and for working people,″ Casar said.

Ladd Keith, an assistant professor at the University of Arizona who studies heat policy and governance, said the record-breaking heat much of the nation is experiencing “is very much in line with climate change projections.” While not surprising, “they’re certainly a continuation of a concerning trend of climate impacts that we’ve seen,” he said.

Despite the recent headlines, rising temperatures have typically not received the same level of attention as other climate risks, such as flooding and wildfires, Keith said.

“Heat has just not been a topic at the national level or local level that we’ve even considered addressing until the last couple of years,” he said.

However, Keith said the administration has ramped up its focus because of searing weather events, such as the heat dome in the Pacific Northwest in 2021 that prompted record temperatures and dozens of deaths across the region.

OSHA fined a Florida farm supervisor last month for exposing workers to excessive heat after a worker from Mexico died at a farm in Parkland, Florida. Investigators determined the worker’s death could have been prevented if a labor contractor had followed established safety practices regarding heat-related hazards.

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By Columbia Mailman School of Public Health

The Southwest and West face a second week of extreme temperatures that have already claimed more than a dozen lives. Approximately one in three Americans received excessive heat warnings, watches or advisories last weekend, according to the National Weather Service. Globally, July was the hottest month on record, pushing the world closer to the critical 1.5-degree Celsius temperature rise threshold, the most optimistic target for limiting global warming.

Meanwhile, Canadian wildfires, preceded by doubts, continue to create smoke that carries thousands of miles, triggering air quality warmings and unhealthy conditions across wide swaths of the United States, reaching as far south as Miami, and communities across New England and the Northeast struggled to recover from recent powerful storms and flash flooding.

Environmental health scientists from Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health—home to the country’s first climate and health program in a school of public health—are working to study and address these challenges, both through original research and teaching front-line health workers and the next generation of public health leaders.

“There is no doubt that extreme weather and wildfires are happening with greater frequency because of climate change,” says Cecilia Sorensen, an emergency medicine physician and associate professor of environmental health sciences at Columbia Mailman School. Studies show that climate change has led to a 50 percent increase in the acreage burned. “We are especially concerned with vulnerable groups, including individuals with preexisting respiratory and cardiovascular conditions, the elderly, small children, and infants, people without stable housing, and those who work outside.”

Sorensen points to a slate of health risks from extreme weather. Exposure to wildfire smoke is dangerous for people with asthma and other respiratory conditions and prolonged time spent outdoors is a risk to everyone. High temperatures are most dangerous to the same vulnerable groups, including the elderly and those who work and live outside. Stormy weather introduces the risk of injury, such as from landslides and downed powerlines, and creates a breeding ground for mosquitoes and other infectious disease vectors. All these stressors disrupt lives and have a negative impact on mental health—as can the larger anxiety about climate change.

In situations of extreme weather, individuals should seek out guidance from their local authorities on cooling centers, road closures, masking guidance, and more. Air quality information is available online(link is external and opens in a new window) and offers a general framework for how safe it is to be outdoors. Sorensen adds her own advice: “Check in on your loved ones. Often our most valuable front-line responders are friends and family,” she says.

Sorensen leads the Global Consortium on Climate and Health Education (GCCHE), which is based at Columbia Mailman. With 310 medical, nursing, public health, and other health professions schools as members, GCCHE develops curricula and conducts trainings on climate and health around the world. She is a member of the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change(link is external and opens in a new window) and serves on the National Academy of Medicine Action Collaborative for Decarbonization of the U.S. Health Sector(link is external and opens in a new window). She is the co-editor of the textbook Climate Change and Human Health: From Science to Practice.

In its trainings, GCCHE focuses on ways communities can protect themselves and build resiliency. These include early warning systems for extreme weather, rain gardens and other methods to mitigate flooding, cooling centers, and more.

Informing these trainings is research by Sorensen and other Columbia Mailman faculty scientists, including Darby Jack, Marianthi-Anna Kioumourtzoglou, Robbie Parks, Jeff Shaman, Lew Ziska, and others. These studies have linked elevated temperatures to injury deaths(link is external and opens in a new window), wildfire smoke to jump in ICU admissions(link is external and opens in a new window), tropical cyclones to elevated hospitalizations(link is external and opens in a new window) and death rates, including the specific illnesses involved(link is external and opens in a new window) and special risks to older adults(link is external and opens in a new window). They have also examined the effects of heat stress on kidney function of agricultural workers(link is external and opens in a new window), as well as the broader impacts of climate change on women’s health(link is external and opens in a new window) and on food security. Meanwhile, research continues to demonstrate the negative health impacts of the main driver of climate change—air pollution from fossil fuel combustion.

“Climate changing is stressing all of society, especially the most vulnerable,” says Sorensen. “It’s critical that we come together to protect ourselves as extreme weather becomes the new normal. At the same time, we need to push for a speedy transition to a green economy.”

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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — The Southwestern U.S. is bracing for another week of blistering temperatures, with forecasters on Monday extending an excessive heat warning through the weekend for Arizona’s most populated area, and alerting residents in parts of Nevada and New Mexico to stay indoors.

The metro Phoenix area is on track to tie or to break a record set in the summer of 1974 for the most consecutive days with the high temperature at or above 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43 Celsius). Even the morning low temperatures are tying historic records.

Along the U.S.-Mexico border, federal agents reported that extreme temperatures over the weekend contributed to 45 people being rescued and another 10 dying.

With so many consecutive days of excessive heat, forecasters, physicians and local health officials throughout the Southwest are recommending that people limit their outdoor exposure and know the warning signs of heat illness.

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KNOWING THE SIGNS

From heavy sweating and dizziness to muscle spasms and even vomiting, experts say heat exhaustion and heat stroke are likely to become more common. In coming decades, the U.S. is expected to experience higher temperatures and more intense heat waves.

Heat stroke is the most serious heat-related illness and happens when the body loses its ability to sweat.

The skin gets hot and red, and the pulse quickens as the person’s body temperature climbs to 103 F (39 C) or higher. Headaches set in, along with nausea, confusion and even fainting.

Jon Femling, an emergency medicine physician and scientist at the University of New Mexico, said the body tries to compensate by pumping blood to the skin as a way to cool off. And the more a person breathes, the more they lose fluids, becoming increasingly dehydrated.

Important electrolytes like sodium and potassium also can be lost when sweating.

“So one of the first things that happens is, your muscles start to feel tired as your body starts to shunt away,” he said. “And then you can start to have organ damage where your kidneys don’t work, your spleen, your liver. If things get really bad, then you start to not be perfusing your brain the same way.”

Experts say it’s important to recognize the signs of heat stroke in others, as people may not realize the danger they’re in because of an altered mental state that may involve confusion.

In the case of heat stroke, experts suggest calling 911 and trying to lower the person’s body temperature with cool, wet cloths or a cool bath.

With heat exhaustion, the body can become cold and clammy. Other signs include heavy sweating, nausea, muscle cramps, weakness and dizziness. Experts say the best thing to do is to move to a cool place, loosen clothing and sip some water.

Older people, children and those with health conditions can face greater risks when the temperatures are high.

During extreme heat events, one of the most common ways people can die is from cardiovascular collapse, experts said, because of the extra energy the heart has to expend to help the body compensate for the hot temperatures.

In general, health officials say staying indoors, seeking air-conditioned buildings and drinking more water than usual can stave off heat-related illnesses. Caffeine and alcohol are no-nos. Eating smaller meals more often throughout the day can help.

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LEARNING THE LIMITS

Researchers at Arizona State University are trying to better understand the effects of extreme heat on the body and what makes hot weather so deadly.

They’re using a special thermal mannequin called ANDI that is outfitted with nearly three dozen different surface areas that are individually controlled with temperature sensors and human-like pores that produce beads of sweat.

“A lot of research that I and my colleagues do is just really focused on understanding how people are responding to higher levels of extreme heat over longer periods of time and then what we can do about it,” said Jenni Vanos, an associated professor at ASU’s School of Sustainability.

There are 10 thermal mannequins in existence, with most used by athletic clothing companies for testing. ASU’s manikin is the first that can be used outdoors thanks to a unique, internal cooling channel.

The university also has developed a new “warm room,” or heat chamber where researchers can simulate heat-exposure scenarios from around the globe. Temperatures can reach 140 F (60 C) inside the room — and wind and solar radiation can be controlled for experiments.

Vanos said measuring short- and long-wave radiation in the environment can also tell researchers how much a surface — or a person — in a specific location of a city would heat up.

“And so under these extreme conditions, what’s going to really be able to be modified or changed within the urban environment is shade,” she said. “In a place like Phoenix or really any sunny hot area, shade is a really critical factor to be able to reduce that overall heat load of the human body.”

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FINDING RELIEF

While air conditioners are cranked up and fans are blowing full blast, residents across the region are anxiously awaiting the start of the monsoon season, hoping it will help to keep the heat at bay.

But so far, the summer thunderstorms — which usually bring cloud cover, lightning and downpours to the Southwestern desert — are absent due to the ongoing El Niño weather pattern, National Weather Service meteorologist Sam Meltzer said.

“It looks like things are going to be abnormally dry over the next couple of months,” Meltzer said, noting that storms that might break the heat depend on wind patterns drawing moist air from the Gulf of California into Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada.

“But that doesn’t mean we aren’t going to get thunderstorm activity,” Meltzer said. “It just might be delayed.”

Meltzer worked in Phoenix before transferring last winter to Las Vegas. He noted that while temperatures rose last month in the Phoenix area, June stayed abnormally cool in southern Nevada.

The official daytime temperature at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas remained below 100 F (37.8 C) for a record 294 days before temperatures reached 102 F (38.9 C) on June 30. The previous record of 290 days, from 1964 to 1965, had stood for 58 years.

Still, it’s not just the air temperature that people need to worry about, Vanos said. Humidity can make it more difficult for the body to produce sweat as a way to cool off.

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