What we know about extreme heat’s health impacts after the hottest summer on record
Last summer’s heat waves demonstrated all the ways that extreme heat takes a toll on the human body. In cities across the U.S. from Phoenix to New York, people suffered from heat exhaustion, heat stroke, heat cramps, and more. In Texas, more than 300 people died from heat last year — the highest number since the state started tracking the deaths in 1989.
In a paper published Tuesday in Nature, researchers confirmed that 2023 was the hottest on record in the northern hemisphere in 2,000 years. And the stakes are as high as the temps.
