HOUSTON, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) — Heat-related deaths in the south-central U.S. state of Texas hit a new two-decade high last year amid sharp increases the number of migrant deaths and rising temperatures caused by climate change, the Texas Tribune news site reported on Friday.
At least 279 people were killed by heat in Texas in 2022, the highest annual death toll for the state since at least 1999, according to its analysis of state data.
Many of those deaths are likely migrants who died after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, the Texas Tribune noted.
The US Border Patrol said it discovered 853 bodies along the US-Mexico border in the 2022 fiscal year ending September 30. This figure includes deaths related to heat, drowning and other causes.
Texas also experienced its second-hottest summer on record during what was its worst drought in more than a decade, the Texas Tribune reported, citing numbers provided by state climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon. .
The population of the second largest US state has grown from just over 20 million in 1999 to around 30 million in 2022.
