Despite the hottest month ever in Phoenix, the Maricopa County coroner’s office began seeing a spike in death investigations on July 10.

In July, 842 medical examiners enrolled, a 10% increase from 764 in the same month of the previous year.

County officials told ABC15 that the heat may have caused or contributed to 57% of the deaths since the spike began.

There is a time lag between when a death occurs and when a doctor confirms and reports the cause.

“Because the investigation will take time, it is too early to provide a specific number of heat-related deaths,” Maricopa County Coroner Jeff Johnston said in a statement.

The county has not yet had to use 10 additional coolers that can hold up to 180 bodies. The cooler was brought in last week as part of the county’s emergency plan.

“Additional coolers will help increase production capacity, but we would like to recognize OMA staff who are operating well beyond their normal maximums to accommodate this surge,” Johnston said. .

Medical examiners typically see a spike in deaths in the summer. But this year has been particularly bad, county officials said.

The surge came as Arizona set multiple heat records in July.

Phoenix set a record for temperatures above 110 degrees Celsius for 31 days in a row.

Phoenix recorded the hottest month ever for a U.S. city, with an average temperature of 102.7 degrees Celsius. The previous record was an average of 99.1 degrees set in August 2020.

Send an email to ABC15 Agent Ann Lyman.anne.ryman@abc15.com602-685-6345, or connect totwitterandFacebook.