People have died due to dehydration in the heat
A woman and her father were found dead Friday afternoon in a national park in southeastern Utah. It is reported that they ran out of water due to a sharp rise in temperature.
The girl and a 52-year-old man from Green Bay were hiking in Canyonlands National Park when they ran out of water, the National Park Service said in a press release. None of them were named.
The father and daughter got lost while hiking the park's Sincline Trail, which stretches for more than 12 kilometers and usually takes five to seven hours to complete. The difficulty level of the loop trail is rated «Strenuous» by the Park Service. The trail guide notes that the trail «includes approximately 1,500 feet of steep elevation change and requires steep descents, ascents, and scrambling through boulder fields where trail markers are few and far between.»
According to park officials, temperatures in Canyonlands exceeded 37 degrees Celsius. The hiker deaths come amid a heat wave that has gripped much of Utah, breaking temperature records in some places and prompting warnings from the National Weather Service about the possibility of heat-related illnesses.
The National Park Service provided few details about the circumstances surrounding the father and daughter's deaths, but said local police dispatchers received a 911 call that informed them of the couple's situation. Rangers and other local agencies began searching for the missing men, who were already dead by the time they reached them. Their bodies were brought from the mountain by helicopter. The park service said it is investigating the incident along with the San Juan County Sheriff's Office.
«As temperatures remain high this summer, park visitors are advised to carry and drink plenty of water and avoid strenuous work in the midday heat,» the park service said.
Heatwave across the United States this summer, led to deaths in other parts of the country. Less than a week before the Utah hikers died, officials blamed scorching temperatures for the death of a motorcyclist in California's Death Valley, the Associated Press reports.
The incident occurred as a high temperature of 53 degrees Celsius was recorded in the intermountain trench. . Around the same time, another person in the area was hospitalized due to heat.
In 2024, there were 59 heat-related deaths confirmed in the United States. Most of them occurred in the western states of California, Arizona, Oregon and Nevada, with Arizona and Oregon each reporting 16 deaths. But there have also been deaths in eastern states such as Maryland, New York, Virginia and Pennsylvania. There were also 21 unconfirmed heat-related deaths in the country.