Heat-related illnesses on rise in New Mexico amid record-high temperatures

Already this summer, 770 New Mexicans have visited statewide emergency rooms for heat-related illnesses. That’s more than all of last summer, according to the state Health Department, with more than a month remaining in the season.

The spike in heat-related emergencies comes amid a statewide record heat wave. In the first week of August, Albuquerque and Farmington have broken six high temperature records, with temperatures hovering above 100 degrees each day this month, National Weather Service meteorologist Randall Hergert told Source NM on Friday. 

The service has also issued multiple heat advisories throughout August, including one in effect through Saturday evening for those cities as well as northern New Mexico between Los Alamos and Taos. 

Hergert said much of the state has endured a “dry patch” without adequate afternoon monsoons to offset heat and decrease overnight low temperatures. But he said forecasts call for a respite beginning early next week, with more moisture and temperatures finally decreasing below triple digits. 

State health officials, in a news release Thursday, urged the public, particularly elderly and young children, to stay hydrated and avoid the sun if possible. 

“Anyone can be affected, but children, adults over 65, outdoor workers and people with chronic conditions are more susceptible and should take extra care when it’s hot,” Chelsea Langer, chief of the department’s Health Epidemiology Bureau, said in a statement.

For those without air conditions, the state’s new Office of Housing has spent some of its legislative funding to help set up five cooling centers in southern New Mexico, where temperatures have regularly exceeded 100 degrees Fahrenheit all summer. 

The cooling centers opened with the help of $20,000 grants the office provided to the town of Tatum, City of Hobbs and Eastern Regional Housing Authority of Roswell, department spokesperson Stacy Johnston told Source NM in an email. During a cold snap this January, the office also provided about $820,000 for warming centers to entities across the state. 

One of the Roswell cooling centers is housed in a Presbyterian church on the outskirts of the city. Ernie Montoya, a volunteer with the church and Food Not Bombs Roswell, told Source NM on Thursday that the center has already served nearly 2,000 people, most of them unhoused, along with 300 of their pets. The center has also served as a hub to offer people showers, haircuts and other services. 

“The impact is huge. We are changing people’s lives tremendously, even if it’s just a haircut,” he said. “They feel like they’re being forgotten. We don’t have to be the hand that pushes them down. We can be the hand that lifts them up.”