Sarah Trent

This article was originally published by High Country News.Around the middle of April, spring in the still chilly and wet Pacific Northwest seemed a long way off. Just two weeks later, though, Spokane hit a daily record of 84 degrees Fahrenheit; a month of historic heat ensued. During a heat wave that started around May 12, Portland’s metro area beat records for consecutive May days over 80 degrees (nine) and 90 degrees (four). Coastal communities set records in the 90s too.

This story was originally published in High Country News.As 90-degree temperatures bore down on the Pacific Northwest in May, real-time reporting to the CDC showed that heat-related emergency-room-visit rates were more than 30 times higher than they had been the previous weekend. Though state officials caution that the data are preliminary, Oregon and Washington confirmed 160 heat-related ER visits from May 12 to 15.