ST. LOUIS — The high temperatures that we can see during St. Louis summers can be dangerous for many people in our area.
NOTE: The video above is from June 14, 2022.
Temperatures and heat indexes in the triple digits can lead to heat-related illnesses like heat stroke and heat exhaustion. If you don't have access to air conditioning at your home or just need a place to beat the heat, cooling centers are available throughout the St. Louis area.
The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services has compiled a map of locations around the state and a few in the Metro East. There are 24 in the City of St. Louis, dozens more in St. Louis County and others in the surrounding counties.
You can find a cooling center near you by clicking here or using the map below.
The CDC tracks heat-related deaths in the United States and says around 618 people are killed by extreme heat annually. It defines extreme heat as: “Summertime temperatures that are much hotter and/or humid than average. Because some places are hotter than others, this depends on what’s considered average for a particular location at that time of year.”
The number of heat-related deaths was even higher for a 15-year span from 2004-2018, according to a CDC morbidity and mortality report. During that time, there was an average of 702 heat-related deaths in the U.S. every year. In 59% of those deaths, heat was identified as the underlying cause of death and in 41% of those deaths, heat was identified as a contributing cause of death.
According to the CDC, some of the most common heat-related illnesses are heat cramps, heat exhaustion and heat stroke, and they each present different symptoms.