A 10-day stretch of high temperatures this summer recorded about 15% of the 145,321 heat-related emergency department visits in the U.S. between Jan. 1 and Sept. 10, according to research published July 17 in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
CDC researchers analyzed the volume of heat-related ED visits between June 28 and July 7, when a heat dome encapsulated most of the U.S. During these 10 days, about 65% of the U.S., or 221 million people in 42 states and Washington, D.C., experienced at least one day of major or extreme heat risk.
Across HHS regions 1-7, which span the Eastern coast, South and Midwest states, the CDC recorded 21,775 heat-related illness ED visits.
Daily visit rates exceeded the previous 95th percentile benchmark between 2018 and 2025. The worst of it was in HHS region 7. In Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska and Iowa, hospitals recorded approximately 675 heat-related ED visits per 100,000 all-cause visits every day from June 28 to July 7. In the Northeast, “the maximum daily [heat-related illness] visit rates recorded since 2018 occurred on or just before the July 4 holiday weekend,” the study said.
Read the report here.
