Heat wave death toll in Washington state jumps to 112 people
The official death toll from the record-breaking Washington state heat wave rose by 21 on Monday as the Washington Department of Health revised its number to 112.
The latest update makes the early summer heat wave the deadliest weather-related disaster in the state.
Heat-related deaths have been reported in 19 counties across the state, according to the Washington Department of Health, which continues to count reports from coroners and hospitals in the county.
The extreme heat claimed the most casualties in the state’s two largest counties: 28 in King County and 21 in Pierce County.
On Monday, the Pierce County Medical Examiner’s office reported 23 confirmed heat-related deaths.
State health officials said their record lags behind that of local health officials.
The official statewide toll, expected to continue to rise, is now close to that of Oregon, where at least 116 people are known to have died from the heat.
In the north, British Columbia estimated heat-related deaths by comparing all deaths reported each day of the heat wave to the same data in previous years. There, the BC Coroner’s office estimated about 580 “excess deaths” during the province’s week of previously unthinkable temperatures.
In addition, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Friday that 3,500 people in four northwestern states landed in emergency rooms with heat-related complaints in May and June, with nearly 2,800 going to the emergency room June 25-30, as of the Most of Oregon and Washington have come under extreme heat warnings.
On June 28, at least 1,038 people were admitted to the emergency room with heat-related illnesses in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Alaska. On that day, a year earlier, there were nine people.
CDC officials did not respond to requests for a breakdown of their numbers by state. (Neither Idaho nor Alaska experienced the extreme temperatures like Oregon and Washington.)
Monday’s Department of Health update makes the heat wave the deadliest weather-related disaster in Washington. This record was previously held by a 1910 avalanche near Stevens Pass that killed 96 people in two pulls.
No extreme heat, cold, storm, or flood in Washington has killed anywhere near that many people.
A “rapid attribution” study by climate scientists published prior to peer review concluded that this heat wave was made possible by an altered climate that pushed the northwest further into record territory.
As greenhouse gas pollution pushes an overheated world further into uncharted territory, such extreme extremes become less unlikely, while more common heat waves become more frequent and intense.
“What we think [as] Extreme Right will be much, much more common going forward, ”said geoscientist Claudia Tebaldi of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the University of Maryland.
While the Yakima County’s Coroner’s Office reported that extreme heat contributed to the deaths of two men in their thirties, most of those who died in Washington were older.
Many died alone, found in their overheated homes, trailers, or cars.
“There was no air conditioning in the homes where these deaths occurred,” Benton County coroner reported of the deaths of a 69-year-old man, a 73-year-old man, and a 74-year-old woman whose names were not disclosed .
Heat waves kill more people in the United States than any other form of extreme weather.
To keep the future death toll low, University of Washington global health researcher Kristie Ebi urged local governments to both develop “heat action plans” to better prepare for future heat waves as cities do in hotter ones Climates have done and to stop the pollution that fuels extreme weather conditions.
“Climate science is very clear that the future is in our hands,” said Ebi. “How hot it will be later in your life depends on the greenhouse gases emitted today.”
The Washington State heat wave death toll according to preliminary July 19 figures from the Washington Department of Health:
| district | residence | Occur |
|---|---|---|
| Asotin | 1 | 1 |
| Benton | 4th | 4th |
| Clallam | 2 | 2 |
| Clark | 3rd | 3rd |
| Cowlitz | 1 | 1 |
| Douglas | 2 | 2 |
| Franklin | 1 | 1 |
| island | 1 | 0 |
| Jefferson | 2 | 2 |
| king | 20th | 28 |
| Kitsap | 2 | 2 |
| Okanogan | 4th | 4th |
| Pacific | 1 | 1 |
| Pierce | 18th | 21 |
| Skagit | 7th | 8th |
| Snohomish | 7th | 10 |
| Spokane | 7th | 7th |
| Thurston | 6th | 6th |
| Walla Walla | 1 | 1 |
| Whatcom | 3rd | 3rd |
| Yakima | 5 | 5 |
| Unknown | 14th | 0 |
| total | 112 | 112 |