The total of 38 deaths determined to be heat related far outnumbered preceding years.
Last year was the hottest yet recorded around the world, and in Santa Clara County 38 deaths were determined to be heat-related, after several heat waves brought daily high temperatures in San Jose above 100° in July, and again in October.
On July 6 alone, three deaths were attributed to extreme heat in the county. Overall, the death toll from last year’s heat is a massive increase from the 13 total heat deaths reported in the county over the previous six years, from 2018 to 2023.
Of those 2024 heat deaths, 27 were in San Jose, 3 in Mountain View, 2 in Milpitas, and one each in Gilroy, Los Altos, Morgan Hill, Palo Alto, Santa Clara and Sunnyvale, according to data from Santa Clara County Medical Examiner-Coroner’s Office. There were also 2 heat deaths in Alameda County last year.
San Mateo County did not identify any heat deaths in 2024, or in the preceding years, but did report 3 heat deaths in 2017, when a September heat wave killed over a dozen people in the region.
“In the last couple years, we’ve seen the most extreme heats on record,” said Dr. Grant Lipman, an emergency room physician with Santa Clara Valley Healthcare. “And with these heat events, we’re certainly seeing a lot of heat illness in the emergency room.”
Lipman, who has done research on heat illness, says some groups are more at risk: unhoused people, those who work outside, the very old and the very young.
Lipman said his research has shown that one of the best ways to cool someone down is cold-water immersion. “We put them in a body bag, we fill it with ice,” Lipman said, describing the method he has used. “In about 10 minutes, we drop their temperature, we dry them off, zip up the bag and throw it out,” he said.
Now, as spring showers and April flowers turn to hotter and longer days around the Bay Area, Lipman said people should remember to drink water when they are thirsty, to replenish electrolytes with salty snacks, and get out of the sun if they feel overheated.
“The number one diagnostic warning signal is if someone is confused,” Lipman said, of when to seek medical care.
When people cannot or do not follow those precautions, their heat illness can become deadly, and it is an increasing concern as these extreme heat events become more common because of climate change.
On July 3 last year, as temperatures topped 100 degrees in San Jose, California’s Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara released an analysis of the hidden costs of extreme heat in the state. The report found that between the seven extreme heat events they investigated, it cost an estimated $7.7 billion to government and industry. “Extreme heat is a silent, escalating disaster that threatens our health, economy, and way of life in California,” Lara said when the report was released.
The medical examiner’s office announced that they were investigating 19 deaths as possibly heat-related in July, but it can take weeks or months for death investigations to be completed. In the end, they determined that 21 deaths in the county in July were heat-related. “The Office of the Medical Examiner evaluates a variety of factors when determining whether fatalities are caused by heat,” a spokesperson wrote in an email.