The temperatures have been above 90 degrees pretty much every day of July in Santa Clara County, and the marathon heat wave is believed to be responsible for 19 people dying from the heat there since July 1.
The week of July 4 heat wave simmered down here in San Francisco last weekend, but not so for some other parts of the Bay Area. Consider Santa Clara County, home to cities like San Jose, Sunnyvale, and Mountain View, where temperatures have been above 90 degrees all but three days since July 1, and above 100 degrees for two of those days (while Thursday’s high temperature was 99 degrees).
And there has been a rather tragic outcome to this, as SFGate reports that the July heat wave is being blamed for 19 deaths in Santa Clara County since July 1. The Santa Clara County Office of the Medical Examiner-Coroner has not made a final determination on the cause of some of these deaths, but they are all being investigated as heat-related based on preliminary findings.
The medical examiner’s office noted that the 19 who died this month of suspected heat-related causes ranged in age from 32 to 84 years old, and nine of them were 65 years old or older. Four of them were unsheltered, one was in a transitional housing program.
The coroner’s office pointed out in a statement that “Signs of heatstroke include throbbing headache, confusion, nausea, dizziness, body temperature above 103°F, hot, red, dry or damp skin, rapid and strong pulse, fainting, and loss of consciousness.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control, “1,220 people in the United States are killed by extreme heat every year.”
Image: Andrii Ganzevych via Unsplash
