Extract from ABC News
Things aren't always quite as they seem in Phoenix as the US city endures another sweltering day.
Take the articulated bus parked up in the area of town known as The Zone, a homeless encampment.
Veteran driver Lori Jimenez, who loves her job so much she calls herself "da bus gal", is sitting alert in the front seat with her high-vis vest on, but neither she nor the bus are going anywhere.
The air-conditioned vehicle is serving instead as a mobile cooling centre, a place where people can come and escape the city's punishing temperatures during the hottest hours of the day. At least, for a little while.
"Come on in, get some water, get some ice," Lori calls out to those who tentatively approach the front door.
Phoenix has just ended a record-breaking streak of 31 consecutive days where the highest temperature has topped 43.3 degrees Celsius.
Early last week it dropped slightly to a mere 42C before shooting right back up to hit the mid-40s by the week's end.
With temperatures soaring, shielding the city's most vulnerable citizens from the worst impacts of extreme heat has become an ongoing battle.
"Yeah, it's insanely hot," said Kayla Henderson, who's using the cooling bus for the first time.
She's been sleeping rough but is here more for her dog, Problem, than herself.
Problem's been her "best friend" since she got her as a puppy.
"She's like a snow dog, so she can't cope with the heat at all," she said.
"That's why I carry around ice. It is kind of expensive, but I've got to keep her cool … because she didn't ask to be brought into this heat."
A snap scientific analysis has found July's boiling temperatures across the United States and parts of Europe would have been "virtually impossible" without human-induced climate change.
The country's brutal heatwaves have been particularly punishing in Arizona. In Phoenix, a 31-day heat streak was not the only record to fall in the city.
It has also recently recorded its hottest month on record, the warmest overnight low — at 36C — and the longest streak of overnight lows above 32.2C.
Meanwhile, the sizzling conditions have taken a toll on some of the city's cacti, which can become "somewhat squishy" before suddenly collapsing from the heat.
Despite sleeping outside during this record heat, Kayla says she can more or less handle the nights.
"When the sun isn't beating down on you, it actually feels a lot cooler," she said.
"But it's still pretty hot. I just wear … shorts and tank tops."
America's first heat response team
In Sunnyslope, north of downtown, Michelle Litwin is introducing herself to the handful of volunteers who've turned up for a "We're Cool" shift.
She's a program manager at the Office of Heat Response, the first publicly funded unit of its kind to be established in the US.
It runs these shifts, where small teams head out to offer up water, electrolytes, sunscreen and cooling towels to anyone who needs them.
"I will never say no to someone coming and asking for two waters and two Gatorades. That's what they're here for," Michelle tells the group.
Most of the takers are homeless, among them Hope Dobbins.
"For people to come out here and be in this heat with us, to offer us water … I mean that's amazing," she said.
Hope likes the heat and moved to Arizona because of it, but even she is doing it tough in this historically hot summer.
"Sometimes I'll go into an apartment complex and jump in their pool," she said.
Half the time she gets kicked out again, but the temporary relief is worth it.
Everyone here has developed strategies for coping with the heat, in what can be a matter of life and death.
Heat is considered the number one weather-related killer in the US, with more than 600 deaths a year attributed to its effects.
"I think Phoenix, I think our natural disaster is heat," Michelle said.
"We do get flash floods and those other things, but this is taking more lives."
There have been 25 confirmed heat-related deaths this year in Maricopa County, where Phoenix is situated, and a further 200 are under investigation.
"I think every time I can get someone a bottle of water and let them know about additional resources, that's someone that I hopefully have stopped from dying from the heat," Michelle said.
Firefighters are using chilled bags of IV fluid to treat heat stroke
Captain Todd Keller and his colleagues at the Phoenix fire department are also in the business of saving lives, with the help of an esky.
Each station takes a cool box filled with some basic but effective equipment on what are an increasing number of heat-related callouts.
When they come across someone whose temperature is dangerously high, they hook them up to a chilled bag of IV fluid.
"That is exactly what they need — they need this cold fluid running throughout their body," Todd said.
"It goes quick."
The esky also holds bottles of water, Gatorade and a few soaking towels which can be applied to the patient's neck, wrists or under their arms to lower their temperature.
"Since July we've seen over 20-plus calls related to heat emergencies a day," he said.
"It's an uptick."
A special coating on the city's roads reflects the sun
Venture into some of Phoenix's residential areas and you'll notice some of the streets have a blue-grey hue.
Since 2020 more than 160 kilometres of the city's roads have been treated with a specially designed reflective coating known as cool pavement.
A study by Arizona State University has shown that the surface temperature on cool pavements is, on average, several degrees lower than on traditional asphalt.
"Less of the energy from the Sun is stored in the actual pavement and more is reflected back into the atmosphere," said urban climate researcher Ariane Middel from Arizona State University.
"So you can walk your dog a little bit later in the day because the surface temperatures are reduced."
Cool pavements are just one example of the ways in which Phoenix is attempting to combat the hazardous heat.
"In places where it's hot and dry, such as Phoenix, the most effective strategy is providing more shade," Ariane said.
"If you go to Florida or other cities that have a higher humidity, then shade becomes less effective or less important in the equation because then the humidity is what really drives how comfortable or uncomfortable you feel and how much you can compensate for that."
Local authorities are aiming to double the tree canopy to 25 per cent of Phoenix by 2030, but in an area experiencing water shortages, researchers are pushing for a rethink.
A study of alternative shade strategies found many were just as effective.
"Anything that casts a shadow will drastically reduce the heat load on the human body … from umbrellas or shade sails, photovoltaic canopies," Ariane said.
Will these cooling technologies be enough?
For climate justice group Chispa AZ, the heat response measures from the city authorities can't come quickly enough.
"They need to invest a lot quicker and a lot more robustly into those programs," the organisation's executive director, Vianey Olivarria, said .
The group, which lobbies on behalf of Phoenix's Latino community, which makes up 40 per cent of the population, says the measures also need to target areas of the city which need it most.
That includes people who struggle to pay electricity bills for air conditioning, who are reliant on public transport and who work outside on construction sites and farms.
"For the city of Phoenix to address climate in a way that is just and equitable, they must be looking at who's in the front line and the communities are the communities of colour and low-income families," Vianey said.
Philip Garred has taken to visiting a cooling centre daily in a medical clinic operated by non-government organisation Circle the City.
"Usually I'll stay here for about an hour and come back later, cool off again," he said.
"There's really not too many places you can sit down in the city, so this is a good place to come."
In between his visits, he sometimes has work detailing RVs, but there's no air conditioning so it's tough-going.
When it gets too hot, he sometimes goes to a supermarket to cool down.
Philip moved to Phoenix from Detroit about eight years ago because of its warmer weather.
Now, as he struggles through this sizzling summer, he sometimes regrets that decision "a little bit".
Mostly not though, because "it's a good city".
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