While they attract millions of visitors every year for desert scenery that cannot be found anywhere else in the world, many of the country's southernmost national parks see extreme temperatures that have been creeping even higher amid global warming.
Last summer, the National Park Service (NPS) said that the number of people who died of dehydration and other heat-related illnesses by July 2023 was already the highest on record. These deaths include a 71-year-old man who collapsed at Death Valley National Park when temperatures reached 121 Farenheit (49.5 Celsius) and a 14-year-old boy who died hiking at Big Bend National Park in Texas.
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A near-fatal incident occurred at the start of this month when a young couple hiking through Southern California's Joshua Tree National Park ran out of water and had to be rescued by helicopter as they grew increasingly dehydrated.
Hikers with severe dehydration rescued by helicopter, given medical help
According to a video shared on social media by Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, the man used wavering cell reception to call 911 when his girlfriend started displaying signs of severe dehydration.
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To rescue the hikers, a helicopter was dispatched to the area of the park known as Painted Canyon. Both were airlifted to safety while the woman was hospitalized in "severe condition" — video footage shot from above shows the man shielding his girlfriend from the sun with his body as she lies on a dry creek bed unconscious.
"One of the hikers, a female hiker was down, appeared to be dehydrated and they were deep in the canyon and needed some help," Sheriff's Office Deputy Manny Romero said in a statement to a local news crew. Other police at the scene said the couple had gotten about five or six miles into the hike before running out of water and being unable to go back; on the days they were there, Joshua Tree temperatures have been consistently over 100 Farenheit with a high of 105.
Sheriff's Department reminds visitors to 'take more water than you need'
While the couple were brought to a medical team and have been given treatment, the close call pushed the Sheriff's Department to remind travelers to plan ahead if visiting during the heat of summer. Even if not planning to do strenuous hikes, visitors can be caught off guard by extreme heat and find themselves far from help at the worst possible time.
"Please remember as the temps increase take more water than you think you will need, have a hiking plan, and tell two people where you are going," the Sheriff's Department reminded visitors. The standard suggested is to bring a liter of water for each hour spent hiking and plan for even more if doing it in extreme heat.
Several studies show that incidents of heat-related illness are only expected to rise as temperatures in parks like Grand Canyon and Joshua Tree continue to rise to unprecedented heights.
"Even under the best-case scenarios there's a lot of future risk coming,” Danielle Buttke, an NPS epidemiologist, told CNN in 2023. “This is truly a human health risk – every degree of warming matters."
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