By State › Arizona

Arizona: Overview

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Everything in the main manual and the skill guides applies in Arizona exactly as written. What’s different here is the specific hazard profile and the state, local, and legal context around it. This page is the starting point; the other three pages under Arizona go deeper on laws, local resources, and the data behind the risks named here.

Extreme heat: an ongoing, worsening annual crisis

Phoenix and the rest of Maricopa County record a heat-related death toll every single year, tracked in unusual detail by the county’s own public health department. 2023 set a record with 645 heat-related deaths; 2024 saw the first year-over-year decline in a decade, 602 deaths, despite being the hottest summer on record. During one 44-day stretch in the summer of 2024, at least one heat-related death occurred in Maricopa County every single day. See the Risks page for the full breakdown.

The Colorado River: Arizona takes the deepest cuts

Arizona’s water supply is directly tied to the Colorado River, and under the river’s current tiered shortage system, Arizona absorbs the largest mandatory reductions of any state sharing it. The river has operated under Tier 1 Shortage conditions in 2022, 2024, 2025, and 2026, cutting roughly 512,000 acre-feet from Arizona’s allocation each year, and the 2007 operating guidelines governing the whole system expire at the end of 2026, with steeper cuts already planned for 2027. This isn’t a single event, it’s a standing, worsening supply constraint that shapes water policy statewide.

What this means for how you use the rest of this manual

The manual’s Tier structure and the skill guides apply without modification. What’s different in Arizona: heat safety (hydration, shade, checking on elderly or outdoor-working neighbors) needs to be a genuine year-round Tier 1 priority for a large part of the year, not an occasional summer concern, and this manual’s water storage and conservation guidance carries real weight in a state whose primary water source is already under mandatory federal cuts.

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