Phoenix’s Rapid Growth Magnified Its Vulnerability to Heat
As the Arizona city shatters temperature records, its sprawling urban footprint is making things even hotter — and harder to keep people safe.
Sidewalk misters help cool Phoenix residents during the current heat wave.
Photographer: Caitlin O'Hara/BloombergImagine opening a roaring oven, and then stepping inside. That’s how Erinanne Saffell felt when she walked out onto a parking lot in Phoenix on June 26, 1990, when the Arizona city recorded its highest temperature ever: 122 degrees Fahrenheit.
“There’s always the joke in the Phoenix area that you don’t want to touch any part of your car as you’re getting in,” says Saffell, Arizona’s state climatologist and an expert on extreme weather at Arizona State University.