What it’s been like to cover Phoenix's record-breaking summer for a national audience

By Lauren Gilger
Published: Wednesday, August 9, 2023 - 11:03am
Updated: Monday, August 21, 2023 - 10:45am

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A Phoenix skyline
Getty Images
The sun sets over Phoenix.

The record heat wave we’ve been experiencing here this summer has made national — and international — headlines. And, while there’s always a certain level of East Coast guffawing over Phoenix temperatures in the news each year, summer 2023 has turned out to be different. 

There’s a new level of understanding about the dangers of extreme heat — and how we all need to think more about it as our world warms. Phoenix is on the front lines of that change and The Show spoke with Sadie Babits, who has been covering it for a national audience.

Babits is the supervising climate editor for NPR, and until recently, she lived here in Phoenix as a professor at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. She still lives here part time now. The Show spoke with her about the national perspective on the Valley’s record-breaking summer. 

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