Name: Excessive Heat in Arizona, June 19 to 25, 2017
Start: 2017-06-19T10:00
End: 2017-06-25T20:00
Location: Arizona

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.

Very strong high pressure aloft developed across the desert southwest during the latter portion of June 2017, and this led to widespread and prolonged excessive heat across the lower deserts of southeast California as well as southern Arizona. High temperatures over the hotter deserts, including the greater Phoenix area, routinely exceeded 112 degrees each day and many of the hotter deserts approached or even exceeded 120 degrees at times. Numerous high temperature records were tied or broken, including those at Phoenix. Although an Excessive Heat Warning ran for 10 consecutive days across the lower deserts, the hottest period ran from Monday June 19 through Wednesday June 21; Phoenix reached highs of 118, 119 and 116 on those 3 days respectively. The extremely dangerous heat was responsible for the death of an elderly couple living in a retirement community in Apache Junction on the far eastern portion of the greater Phoenix area; the couple was found dead in their extremely hot apartment with the air conditioner not functional.

Event by event

1 excessive heat. Local standard time, as filed.

Excessive Heat, Greater Phoenix Area

When: June 19, 10:00 AM MST to June 25, 8:00 PM MST
Where: Greater Phoenix Area forecast zone
Deaths: 2 direct, 0 indirect
Reported by: Newspaper

Strong high pressure aloft developed over the desert southwest and this lead to a prolonged period of excessive heat across the central Arizona deserts during the second half of June 2017. High temperatures each day routinely reached or exceeded 112 degrees, occasionally breaking records in the process. An Excessive Heat Warning was issued for the greater Phoenix area; it ran for 10 consecutive days starting on Saturday June 17. The most significant heat occurred in a 7 day stretch beginning on Monday June 19 when the mercury at Phoenix hit 118 degrees, setting a new record. 119 was hit the following day. The long stretch of dangerous heat claimed 2 victims; on Friday June 23rd, local sheriff's deputies responded to a welfare check at the Palmas Del Sol East retirement community in Apache Junction. They found the apartment to be extremely hot, with fans running at their maximum setting and the air conditioner not functioning. Two people were found dead in the apartment due to the excessive and dangerous heat. The high temperature in Phoenix on Friday was 112 degrees and this was the sixth consecutive day where the high reached or exceeded 110 degrees.

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	2017-06-23		Male	Permanent Home	Direct
Excessive Heat, Greater Phoenix Area	2017-06-23		Female	Permanent Home	Direct

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

More

Every storm in Arizona in 2017 Every state in 2017 This day in weather history Warnings in Arizona, June 2017

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: 697853.