Philadelphians sweated through Julys in the 1940s, brooding over World War II as temperatures averaged in the mid-to-upper 70s, including nighttime lows.
Philadelphia is heating up — and too many of our neighbors can’t escape it. In parts of North, West and South Philadelphia, summer temperatures can soar 20 degrees higher than in greener, wealthier parts of the city. Heat is deadly — it’s a public health emergency that exposes the deep inequities shaping who stays safe and who suffers when the heat rises.