On Saturday I rested and thought, “I’m in Arizona. That night I slept fitfully as temperatures remained high, and I had a headache.īy Friday, July 14, I was super lethargic and just wanted the work week to end. It was obvious I needed to get out of the heat.īut I didn’t think any more of it. My legs started feeling chilled, an odd sensation. It wasn’t the first time this has happened and it’s why I often carry a towel to dry off and keep the sweat from dripping in my viewfinder.īut then I realized there was no need to wipe down. I was sweating so profusely it dripped off me like a basketball player in an intense game. The black asphalt streets were radiating heat. On July 12, I covered a cooling shelter for homeless people and photographed a man at his tent in The Zone, an area of downtown blocks dotted by tents. But I got up the next day and went back out for another consecutive day of temperatures above 110 Fahrenheit (43.3 Celsius).Īt one point my camera stopped working, and I had to cool it down in the car. Heat features are tough in part because people aren’t stupid enough to be outside, unlike photojournalists. On the morning of July 10, I spent more than three hours off and on photographing life outdoors. In recent days it blew past that, with the needle registering well beyond where the numbers stop. The heat inside when the air conditioner is off is way hotter than the air outside, and the thermometer often goes up to 125 degrees Fahrenheit (51.6 degrees Celsius). In my car, I keep a thermometer that I once used to check the temperature of chemicals in a darkroom.
Even my car’s air conditioning has struggled to keep up. My phone and cameras continually glitch out and stop working.
No amount of water or Gatorade can keep you going in these conditions without adequate cool-downs throughout the day. Like most people around here, I talk about temperatures being in the teens as if it’s a given that people know to always put a one in front of that number.īut this summer’s record-shattering heat wave has been like no other. A couple hikes at Papago Park at dusk, Friday, July 14, 2023, in Phoenix. I’ve spent 23 years covering Phoenix as a photographer for The Associated Press, shooting golf tournaments, baseball games and other outdoor sporting events, the city’s growing homeless population, immigration and crime.Īnd, of course, heat. PHOENIX (AP) - Heat never scared me before.
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