By admin 
TUCSON, Ariz. (13 News) – Pima County cooling centers have logged 60,000 visitors so far this year, and hotter temperatures are still ahead.
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The Pima County Health Department provided an update on its heat response plan, which outlines nine priorities across four goals aimed at reducing heat-related illness and death.
Pima County Heat Response and Relief Program Manager Nate Young said the county has seen a sharp rise in cooling center use in recent years.
“We’ve also seen a pretty dramatic increase in our visitor counts,” Young said. “In 2024, we had about 15,000 visitors to registered cooling centers. 2025, that doubled to around 35,000, and this year we’re already at 60,000 reported visitors so far.”
Cooling centers expanded, outreach increased
The county has made progress on several priorities since the plan launched in May, including developing a heat vulnerability map, increasing outreach to at-risk populations, and expanding the number of cooling centers from 35 to 48.
Young said the goal is to take a proactive approach to extreme heat rather than waiting to manage it after problems arise.
“We tend to see an uptick in both emergency room visits related to heat and deaths related to heat, and just issues across the county in general,” Young said.
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Historic heatwave, funding gap create setbacks
A historic March heatwave posed new challenges for the county’s timeline.
“When it comes to cooling center coordination, we really try to push for partners to be ready by April, but nobody expected us to beat the first 100-degree day record by a whole month this year,” Young said.
Two priorities — a heat hotline and cooling center transportation — have not yet launched. Both programs are aimed at unhoused individuals and older adults who lack resources. They stalled after Arizona’s crisis hotline, 211, temporarily lost funding.
“We did run into the challenge of funding for the organization this summer,” Young said. “They have shared with us they are now fully funded for the rest of the year and we’re back in communication with them.”
Young said those programs could be up and running soon.
A full list of cooling centers and additional resources can be found on Pima County’s website.
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