Excessive Heat in Arizona, July 5 to 31, 2009

Name: Excessive Heat in Arizona, July 5 to 31, 2009
Start: 2009-07-05T12:00
End: 2009-07-31T20:00
Location: Arizona

July 5 to 31, 2009 · NWS PSR · 1 event in 1 county or zone

Strong high pressure aloft dominated the southwestern states for most of the month. 5F hotter than normal.

The toll

Deaths: 2
Injuries: 0
Property damage: None recorded
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 1

Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.

What happened

The episode as NWS PSR wrote it up.

Strong high pressure aloft dominated the southwestern states for most of the month. |July 2009 was the hottest month on record in Phoenix...wth a mean monthly temperature of 98.3F, which was 3.5F hotter than normal. The period from July 10 to July 20 was the hottest in the Valley's climatological history, with an average maximum temperature of 112.7 degrees during those 10 days. Yuma was also very hot with a mean monthly temperature of 97.5F, or 3.8 degrees above normal.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Phoenix, AZ wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Jul 4, 2:45 PM MST, 21 hours 15 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Jul 4, 2:45 PM MST, 21 hours 15 minutes before

<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
  <title>Service Notice</title>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="index.css">
</head>
<body>
  <main class="wrap">
    <section class="card" role="status" aria-live="polite">
      <div class="status" id="status">Temporary Notice</div>
      <h1 id="headline">This service is currently unavailable.</h1>
      <p id="message1">
        The site you requested is temporarily down for maintenance or an unexpected outage.
      </p>
      <p id="message2">
        Please try again in a few minutes.
      </p>
      <p class="small" id="detail">
        If you are an administrator, restore upstream service and remove the redirect/fallback rule when normal operations resume.
      </p>
    </section>
  </main>
  <script src="index.js"></script>
</body>
</html>

Event by event

1 excessive heat. Local standard time, as filed.

Excessive Heat, Greater Phoenix Area

When: July 5, 12:00 PM MST to July 31, 8:00 PM MST
Where: Greater Phoenix Area forecast zone
Deaths: 0 direct, 2 indirect
Reported by: County Official

Prolonged heat throughout much of the month of July contributed to 10 heat-caused deaths, according to the Maricopa County medical examiner. July 2009 was not only the hottest July on record but the hottest month of all-time in Phoenix. Records for Phoenix began in 1896. There were 15 days in July where highs reached 110 or hotter at Phoenix Sky Harbor airport.

The people who died

As the offices recorded each death: direct deaths were caused by the weather itself, indirect ones by something it set in motion.

Event	Date	Age	Sex	Where	Kind
Excessive Heat, Greater Phoenix Area	2009-07-25	57	Male	Outside/Open Areas	Indirect
Excessive Heat, Greater Phoenix Area	2009-07-19	14	Male	Outside/Open Areas	Indirect

What these are

Excessive Heat: Heat at or above the local excessive heat warning criteria, or heat that caused deaths.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

Every storm in Arizona in 2009 Every state in 2009 This day in weather history Warnings in Arizona, July 2009

Sources

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-10-01. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 176268.