Hundreds of New York City residents die from heat-related causes each year, and many Black residents living in eastern Brooklyn are vulnerable, according to a new report.
The NYC Health Department on Monday released the 2026 New York City Heat-Related Mortality Report, an annual report describing the toll that heat takes on the lives of New Yorkers. The report shows that approximately 500 New Yorkers die from heat-related causes each year, making heat one of the deadliest weather-related hazards in New York City.
Most of these are heat-exacerbated deaths, which occur when heat worsens existing health conditions such as heart disease, the report said.
“These deaths are preventable, and as our city becomes hotter due to climate change, we must continue investing in access to air-conditioning, affordable energy, and workplace protections to help New Yorkers stay safe when it’s hot, especially for those most vulnerable to the health impacts of heat," NYC Health Commissioner Dr. Alister F. Martin said in a statement.
The report found that approximately 80% of heat-related deaths occur on hot, but not extreme heat days, when temperatures are
The report also found that extreme heat events continue to pose the greatest risk, though they occur less often than non-extreme hot days. A severe and prolonged heat wave in June 2025 resulted in 19 heat stress deaths and disproportionately affected Black and Latino New Yorkers. The event increased the average annual number of heat stress deaths over the past decade and highlighted the growing health risks associated with climate change. In Brooklyn, five people in Sunset Park died of heat stress in 2025, according to the report.
Most people who died from heat stress were exposed to dangerous temperatures in homes without air-conditioning. Heat-exacerbated deaths were also more likely to occur at home during and after hot weather. Lack of access to cooling equipment and affordable energy to operate it remains one of the most significant risk factors for heat-related death, the report said.
Coney Island, Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, East Flatbush, Flatlands, Brownsville and East New York residents were deemed the most vulnerable to heat, according to the city's Heat Vulnerability Index. The HVI combines environmental factors (measures of a neighborhood’s average surface temperature and percentage of green space) with social factors (percentage of homes with air conditioning, residents’ median income, and the percentage of residents who are Black) to develop a relative measure of a neighborhood vulnerability to heat.
To help prevent heat-exacerbated deaths and other heat illnesses in key neighborhoods with the highest risk of heat-related illness and death, last week the NYC Health Department announced the addition of three cooling centers, including one Brownsville.
