Phoenix experienced a 113-day streak of temperatures at or over 100 degrees, and an annual average high temperature of 90 degrees in 2024. The city’s extreme heat is the worst in the nation and has equally resulted in staggering increases of climate-related health emergencies and deaths. 

Greater resilience to such rising temperatures requires clear, verifiable information that can guide communities in effective decision-making. Researchers at Arizona State University are working to fill this gap, using the Phoenix metro as a laboratory in which to measure, study and document the complex variables that determine thermal risk or safety for humans.  

Using novel technologies—like ANDI, the only thermal manikin in the world customized for testing outdoor environments—these scientists are building a detailed understanding of how heat affects the human body under a variety of real-world conditions. The results inform local governments' urgent heat risk mitigation work, identifying and prioritizing high-impact opportunities for public cooling center facilities and augmented built or natural shade.  

Listen in as Ten Across founder Duke Reiter the award-winning climatologist Jennifer Vanos and human thermoregulation expert Konrad Rykaczewski about progress and direction in this groundbreaking heat research at ASU, and how its results may help other heat-vulnerable cities in the I-10 corridor and beyond.  

Related articles and resources  

National Centers for Environmental Information Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters 2024 tally  

Phoenix Shade Action Plan  

“Phoenix closed popular hiking trails for 45 days in 2024. That could rise in 2025.” (Arizona Republic, Jan. 2025)  

“Meet ANDI, the world’s first outdoor sweating, breathing and walking manikin” (ASU News, May 2023)  

“What Some of the Hottest Cities on The 10 Are Doing to Address Deadly Heat” (Ten Across Conversations podcast, Aug. 2024)

 “Local Experts Answer: Why Are People Still Moving to Phoenix?” (Ten Across Conversations podcast, Feb. 2024)  

“Why do Bedouins wear black in the desert?” (The Guardian, Aug. 2012)