Coroner reveals heat death toll for Southern Nevada
Southern Nevada may be approaching its coolest season, but investigators are still working to close several cases where people died in the heat.
The county coroner provided an updated count of this year’s heat-related deaths Thursday — tacking on an additional 19 deaths to the one it released last month. That brings the heat death toll for Southern Nevada up to 279.
It’s still a marked decrease from the record 2024 tally. That record hot summer proved to be deadly, with 527 deaths because of the heat. In mid-October of last year, the toll had already cracked 400.
This year’s count has surpassed those of 2021 and 2022 but hasn’t broken the 2023 toll.
It can take up to three months to determine the cause of nearly all deaths and for officials to release information, so the number of heat deaths is likely to climb through the end of the year.
The coroner began to widen its umbrella for when it considers heat as a factor in someone’s death in 2021. Experts have said heat-related deaths are still largely undercounted throughout the country, including in areas where coroner standards are more progressive like Las Vegas or Phoenix.
Looking deeper at numbers
Officials haven’t yet released any identifying information about 32 of the people who died.
According to its data, the median age is 60. The older someone is, the less capacity the body has to self-regulate its temperatures in extreme heat, experts have said.
But the youngest death happened at age 18, linked primarily to the combination of fentanyl, methamphetamine and anti-psychotics. Most deaths under the age of 30 had a tie to drug or alcohol use — another prominent risk factor that Clark County Coroner Melanie Rouse has highlighted as a growing problem in Las Vegas.
Aside from drug use and old age, another risk factor for being particularly susceptible to heat illness is homelessness. The data does not separate out deaths by housing status.
Contact Alan Halaly at ahalaly@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlanHalaly on X.
