Heat-related deaths in Texas undercounted
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This summer hasn't been as unrelenting as last summer, but a recent death is a reminder that people are at risk amid searing heat and drought conditions.
The latest: 46-year-old Jessica Jill Witzel Hofmann, who was experiencing homelessness, died of heatstroke in the Five Points neighborhood north of downtown last week, family members told the Express-News and Deceleration.
- Officers responded around 4pm Thursday after bystanders reported someone unresponsive on the sidewalk, a police spokesperson tells Axios.
State of play: The Bexar County Medical Examiner's Office will conduct a death investigation, police say.
- But the office has a high bar to list hyperthermia as a cause of death, and the true number of heat-related deaths is typically unknown in Bexar County.
The high temperature on Thursday reached 106°F, per the National Weather Service, breaking the prior record for that day set in 1948.
- It hit 108° the day before — tied for the fourth hottest temperature of any date on record for San Antonio.
- Urban areas with few trees — such as Five Points — are often hotter, known as the urban heat island effect.
By the numbers: There have been 27 days so far this year that hit 100° or higher in San Antonio, per NWS records.
- In 2023, 61 days hit 100 or higher through Aug. 28.
The big picture: Heat-related deaths in the U.S. rose 117% between 1999 and 2023, with more than 21,500 people succumbing over that time, according to a new analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.
- As temperatures continue to rise because of human-caused climate change, planners in at-risk areas should expand access to hydration and public cooling centers and make other accommodations, researchers wrote in JAMA.
The city of San Antonio maintains a map of public cooling centers, like libraries and senior centers, that were open last week.
Zoom out: Last year, the hottest on record in Texas, the state officially tallied 562 deaths where heat was a factor, per the Texas Tribune.
- But medical examiners in Texas counties take a range of approaches to classify and document heat-related deaths. Experts say that contributes to a likely undercount.
- Even so, the official tally has risen in recent years and hit a record in 2023.
Zoom in: San Antonio's Metro Health began tracking heat-related illnesses in a new dashboard system this summer.
- It shows 490 heat-related illnesses so far this year and 154 this month through Aug. 24.
- That's fewer than the 221 heat-related illnesses in August last year.
Thursday last week saw 25 heat-related illnesses in San Antonio, the highest daily number so far this year.
Threat level: Older adults, children, people experiencing homelessness and outdoor workers are especially susceptible to developing heat-related illnesses.
What they're saying: "The more vulnerable you are, the more medical needs you have," Hofmann's friend Marisol Cortez told the Express-News.
- "Plus if you're unhoused, all of these vulnerabilities stack up on one another."