A 56-year-old woman died while hiking near a state park in south-western Utah over the weekend after running out of water on a sweltering day, officials said.
The woman’s death is one of several believed to be caused by the extreme heat in the western United States over the past several weeks.
Emergency crews responded near Quail Creek state park in Hurricane, Utah, on Sunday to a report of a hiker “in distress due to not having enough water and the temperature being 106F (41C)”, the local police department said in a statement.
She was unresponsive when rescuers found her. Life-saving measures were not successful, police said. Her name and hometown have not been released.
Three hikers died in state and national parks in Utah over the previous weekend, including a father and daughter from Wisconsin who got lost on a strenuous hike in Canyonlands national park in triple-digit temperatures. A 30-year-old woman died in Snow Canyon state park while two others were suffering from heat exhaustion.
Three hikers died in recent weeks at Grand Canyon national park in Arizona, where summer temperatures on exposed parts of the trails can exceed 120F (49C).
Much of the US this summer has dealt with soaring temperatures, which experts have linked to the climate emergency spurred by the burning of fossil fuels.
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