Public Health Corner: August 2026
Welcome to the Public Health Corner, a quarterly section in the Southwest Climate Outlook dedicated to exploring the intersection between climate change and public health in Arizona and New Mexico! In the Public Health Corner, we dive into the various ways climate influences our SW communities’ health and explore strategies to mitigate and adapt to these challenges.
This summer 2026 is another record-breaking one, with the earliest start to the heat season on record for Phoenix, and over 11 extreme heat warning days higher than average (as of August 3, 2026). With the continuing intensification of extreme heat, this quarter we focus on heat’s health impacts.
While extreme heat planning often focuses on urban areas, rural areas and small communities are still greatly affected by extreme heat. CLIMAS post-doc Anne-Lise Boyer led a systematic review showing these disparities in extreme heat vulnerability, finding that rural areas have greater vulnerable populations (e.g. outdoor workers, elderly) experiencing heat-related illness, along with reduced infrastructure and resources to address extreme heat risk. This review underscores the need for integrated, place-based governance frameworks that respond to the specific conditions of rural communities. CLIMAS PI Ladd Keith, and post-docs Boyer and Minwoo Ahn address this gap in planning through outlining strategies for heat mitigation and management tailored for the rural and small-town context. Published with the American Planning Association, their memo adapts and expands urban-focused heat-resilience planning into a rural framework centered on setting goals, building a local heat-data “fact base,” choosing feasible actions, coordinating across plans and agencies, engaging residents, and monitoring results. Recommended actions combine mitigation efforts like shade at schools and work sites, conserving vegetation, weatherizing homes, and reducing waste heat. While management strategies such as reliable affordable cooling, worker protections, trusted heat warnings, health outreach, and accessible or mobile cooling centers help support greater public health.
Building on this work for New Mexico, postdoc Minwoo Ahn was invited to present at the Building Heat-Ready Communities Symposium and Extreme Heat Mass Casualty Incident Drill at Gallup Indian Medical Center on June 1, 2026. The first part of the event was online, but the onsite event convened health-care professionals, emergency responders, Tribal partners, and community stakeholders to strengthen heat-emergency preparedness in Indigenous and rural communities. In Arizona, Anne-Lise Boyer also participated in the state’s April 3 extreme-heat tabletop exercise in Phoenix to consider compounding and cascading scenarios in cities and rural areas.
In the meantime, urban heat strategies still include knowing where your cooling centers are and how to access them. Tucson alone has over 30 facilities which provide temporary cooling in the summer. So far nearly 50,000 people have taken advantage of the benefit of these facilities. In our evaluation of 2025 cooling center visitors conducted by CLIMAS PI Heidi Brown, our BRACE intern, and the Pima County Health Department, approximately half of visitors completing the survey were first time visitors and reached the cooling center using public transportation. Just under a quarter of cooling center visitors were there because of problems with their AC, serving as a reminder to map out your nearest cooling center just in case the power goes out or your AC gives up. Acting fast saves lives – 60% of cooling center visitors reported experiencing HRI symptoms and 44% sought medical care because of it. Stay heat aware by receiving text alerts from the NWS for extreme heat events and other weather hazards, utilizing your phone’s weather app, and using 211 to access resources during an extreme weather event.