No U.S. city is more dependent on air conditioning than Phoenix. It's less a matter of comfort than survival.
Las Vegas and Phoenix have always endured broiling summers, but the scale and duration of this heat wave has brought new levels of misery.Allen has made more than 500 house calls this year, bringing in more than $1 million in revenue — more than any of the other 13 technicians at Penguin Air. Since the latest heat wave began in late June, he has worked nonstop, from the early morning until 11p.m. and sometimes later.
Shute had reached the end of her endurance. Her ankles had swollen and her urine had turned dark — worrying signs that her kidneys were struggling. Her thinking got sluggish and confused.Repair technician Chase Allen shows Karen Shute the damaged capacitor that disabled her air conditioner during a heat wave in Mesa, Ariz., on July 17, 2023.
As Allen pried open the back, he explained that the sweltering nights are a bigger problem than the super hot days. ACs aren’t made to run 24/7. During weeks like these, when the temperature is still 106 degrees at midnight, motors overheat and fizzle out and capacitors bake in the sun until they explode.In the corner where Allen crouched, the sun acted like a flame under a cast-iron pan. An infrared thermometer showed the wall next to his shoulder had reached 169 degrees.
“At this point, I’m willing to pay anything. Just get it cool in here,” Shute said. “Just put it on the credit card and I’ll worry about it later.” July 30 was Day 31 of 110-degree highs. The streak ended the next day, when the high only reached 105.Death Valley, one of the most extreme places on the planet, is already seeing the impact of climate change, with summers even hotter than usual.
Karen Shute turned her thermostat down to 74 after her air conditioner was repaired. “I decided I deserve to treat myself,” she said.“I decided I deserve to treat myself,” she explained.
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