Large swaths of the U.S., from the Gulf Coast to the Pacific, have suffered under an intense heat wave for more than three weeks. In Phoenix, the number of consecutive days with a temperature above 110 degrees has surpassed 26, a bleak record. Millions of Americans are feeling the burn and many companies find themselves contending with a future where work is done in increasingly hotter weather.
Heat is the No. 1 cause of weather-related deaths in the U.S. Between 2017 and 2022,121 workers died on the job from reported heat-related distress, according to data from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). As many as 86 million people were exposed to dangerous temperatures in a single day last week, according to an extreme heat tracker published by The Washington Post. Many of those people either work in the heat directly, or are exposed to high temperatures during their commutes.
