Those five straight days under an extreme heat advisory appear to be related to at least a dozen deaths around the Valley last week.
Investigators suspect extreme heat factored into the deaths of 12 people across metro Phoenix and four others in neighboring counties, including an elderly Apache couple found dead in a home without air conditioning.
“The elderly are most vulnerable, especially those with chronic medical conditions,” said Dr. Rebecca Sunenshine with Maricopa County Department of Public Health.
Dr. Sunenshine said statistics show about 40 percent of heat-caused deaths happen indoors and most are elderly women. The other 60 percent happen outdoors.
“The vast majority of them are men,” said Dr. Sunenshine. “And, we don’t know exactly why that is, but we think that there may be a tendency to over exert themselves outside.”
Last week’s deaths bring the county’s total number of cases under investigation so far to 27 this year — three shy of confirmed heat-related deaths for the entire year of 2016.