4 heat-related deaths have been reported in Philadelphia this month, 5 for the year
Across New Jersey, 29 heat-related deaths are “suspected.”
Philadelphia so far has confirmed four heat-related deaths in the last week, bringing the seasonal total to five, according to the Medical Examiner’s Office.
And officials in the Garden State are investigating 29 “suspected” heat-related deaths, most of them in the central and northern parts of the state, a spokesperson for the New Jersey Health Department said Tuesday.
Four deaths have occurred in Philadelphia since July 1, said city Health Department spokesperson James Garrow, with a fifth occurring earlier in the season.
The possible New Jersey heat-related deaths would have occurred during the record three-day hot spell that that ended on July Fourth, the state said.
In Philadelphia, temperatures on those three days hit 101 degrees or higher, the first time that has happened in the period of record dating the 1873, the National Weather Service said.
It also was only the third time they reached triple digits on three straight days.
The Philadelphia Health Department offered no details on the ages or where the deaths occurred.
In New Jersey, the suspected victims ranged in age from the mid-30 to the 80s, said Department of Health spokesperson Dalya Ewais, She added, however, that death toll numbers “are still unconfirmed,” pending forensic examinations.
In the last decade Philadelphia has averaged but four deaths annually, a dramatic drop from the deadly summers of the 1990s.
In 1993, Philadelphia recorded 118 heat-related deaths — more than triple the combined total in the 10-year period through 2025.
The shock of the 1993 death toll in Philly — which foreshadowed Chicago’s 1995 disaster, and Europe’s in 2003 — led to creating of the city’s heat-response system, recalled David L. Cohen, who was chief of staff under former Mayor Ed Rendell.
Federal officials have lauded the program as a model for other cities. It includes setting up cooling centers, encouraging people to look in on neighbors, and having the Philadelphia Corporation for Aging set up a heat hotline.
A study published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorology Society in 2025 credited the program with saving 270 lives from 1995 through 1998.
If the forecast holds, the city can give the program a rest at least through the week. No highs of even 90 degrees are expected through Monday.
