Riverside County regularly collects heat health data, public dashboard in the works

Riverside County regularly collects data on heat-related illnesses and deaths but has yet to publish it. News Channel 3 has reached out to the county before asking for the weekly updated data and was told it was unavailable. 

The county collects data on heat-related deaths and illnesses daily, but its latest public report only shows data through 2021. Heat is the most common weather-related killer.

Wendy Hetherington is the Chief of Epidemiology for the county's public health department. She oversees real-time data collection.

"[The June 2022 heat report is] not the most updated data. It's the most updated data that we've publicly published," said Hetherington.

She said the county has not published the regularly updated data because of a "capacity issue." There have been no heat-related deaths this year compared to 50 last year. Tracking heat-related illnesses, this month is trending to surpass last July's total of 178 patients. 

"I would say the goal is to create and share, you know, have a public-facing dashboard or report on a more timely basis for heat-related injury and death," said Hetherington.

The heat dashboard would be similar to its COVID dashboard during the pandemic, likely factors including location, age, race, and gender. Data like that can help agencies focus outreach efforts to prevent serious heat illnesses and deaths. For example, adding cooling centers to help affected communities. 

"We're onboarding new staff. And that's why there was the delay in making [the dashboard] available," said Hetherington.

She said she hopes the public dashboard will be available within the next few months. In the meantime:

"People could contact our office and get that data," said Hetherington.

The county is also tracking emergency calls for heat illness. Below is a map of those responses from just last week:

The data on heat-related deaths continues to change. The county relies on the coroner's office to confirm any deaths suspected to be heat-related.