September 24, 2026 - 2:49 pm

At least 260 people have died this year because of extreme heat exposure, the Clark County coroner’s office said.

In a Thursday update, the first since the end of July, the number shot up dramatically from 46.

The toll from 2024, the hottest year on record in Las Vegas since reliable records began in 1937, still ranks the highest among years where totals of heat deaths can be compared, with 527 deaths. Clark County coroner Melanie Rouse, who came to the office from Arizona, updated the office’s protocol in 2021 to widen its criteria for heat-related investigations.

Heat deaths stem from many issues in the Las Vegas Valley, from more extreme temperatures in certain neighborhoods, a lack of reliable air conditioning, drug use, homelessness and more. A Las Vegas Review-Journal investigation entitled “A Fatal Forecast” published last month examined some of these issues in depth.

The Las Vegas Valley continues to find ways to reduce heat death numbers through its network of cooling stations, tree planting efforts and more, but federal and state funding is sparse for those efforts. One legislator has said she plans to introduce a bill in the 2027 Nevada Legislature to create a statewide extreme heat office to direct those initiatives and seek sustainable funding sources.

It takes up to 90 days for investigators to determine the cause of death, and the coroner’s office generally considers heat may have been a factor in someone’s death when temperatures crack 95 degrees. That means the death toll is likely to keep rising throughout the rest of the year as staff closes out cases.

Of the 260 who died, the coroner’s office provided information about 218 of them. The remaining 42 cases are pending notification of family members and a final identification.

Those who die in the heat often skew older, which is reflected in the median age of 60. However, drug and alcohol use can impair young people’s ability to regulate their body temperatures. The youngest on the list was 23 years old, a man whose death was caused by fentanyl and meth toxicity, as well.

According to the data, drug or alcohol use contributed to about 103 deaths. That’s slightly less than the number of deaths that are solely attributed to extreme heat without the involvement of drugs or alcohol.

In its investigation, the Review-Journal accounted for more than a dozen deaths where a malfunctioning air-conditioner led to someone’s death. One case was added to the list in the latest update: an 82-year-old woman who died July 6. Her death is attributed to a “nonfunctioning air-conditioner,” according to the coroner data.

The Review-Journal identified ZIP code 89101 — the downtown core of Las Vegas — as the highest-ranking ZIP code for heat death frequency in 2024 and 2025. That remains the case in the latest update, with 20 deaths in that ZIP code.

The coroner’s office reported that 74, or about 34 percent, of the identified people who died were known to be homeless.

Contact Alan Halaly at ahalaly@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlanHalaly on X. Review-Journal investigative reporter Katelyn Newberg contributed to this report.