Name: Heat in Arizona, July 24, 2020
Start: 2020-07-24T11:00
End: 2020-07-24T20:00
Location: Arizona

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it; 1 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.

Tornadoes
Tropical storms and surge
Floods
Wind
Hail
Winter weather
Heat and drought
Cold
Fire, smoke and dust
Marine and coastal
Other

Open the live radar over this ground

The toll

Deaths: 1
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 TWC wrote it up.

Above normal temperatures occurred in southeast Arizona on July 24th with high temperatures just over 100 degrees in western Pima County. The Pima County Medical Examiner confirmed that heat was the primary cause of death for a male individual west of Ajo.

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 Tucson, AZ wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Jul 23, 1:55 PM MST, 21 hours 5 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Jul 23, 1:55 PM MST, 21 hours 5 minutes before

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The radar

The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 heat. Local standard time, as filed.

Heat, Western Pima County

When: July 24, 11:00 AM MST to 8:00 PM MST
Where: Western Pima County forecast zone
Deaths: 1 direct, 0 indirect
Reported by: County Official
Coordinates: 32.097, -111.790 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Above normal temperatures occurred in western Pima County on July 24th. High temperatures included 103 degrees at Ajo and 101 at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. The Pima County Medical Examiner confirmed that heat was the primary cause of death of the unidentified male found 20 miles west of Ajo.

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
Heat, Western Pima County	2020-07-24		Male	Outside/Open Areas	Direct

What these are

Heat: Heat below excessive heat criteria that still caused deaths, injuries or significant impacts.

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

The same day elsewhere

More

Every storm in Arizona in 2020 Every state in 2020 This day in weather history Warnings in Arizona, July 2020

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: 912469.