'Her body temperature was 106': How heat is killing Americans in their homes

Arizona is at the heart of the country's heat crisis. Hundreds of people in the state die from heat-related causes every year. Some of those most at risk live in manufactured homes. Ryan Kellman/NPR hide caption

An NPR investigation finds that heat kills thousands of Americans every year. But official records radically undercount the toll. In this series, we are bringing you stories that reveal why this happens and what can be done.

Heat kills thousands of people across the U.S. every year. But not everyone faces the same risk. Some of those most in danger are the millions of Americans who live in manufactured housing like mobile homes and trailers.

That's not news to many mobile home residents. But research and policy are only recently catching up to that reality.

Solis is a geographer at Arizona State University, which means she uses maps to sleuth out patterns that might otherwise be invisible.

In 2018, she was brand new to ASU and tasked with finding solutions to one of Arizona's most pressing problems: how to keep its residents from dying in the state's ever-increasing heat.

Arizona regularly records hundreds of heat-related deaths each year, and state officials acknowledge the number might be even higher.

In Maricopa County alone, home to Phoenix and where ASU is based, the number of heat-linked deaths consistently exceeds the entire annual toll across the U.S. from weather disasters like hurricanes, floods and tornadoes.