‘Urban island’ heat tests Phoenix, other large cities

PHOENIX (AP) — When temperatures soar as they have this week in downtown Phoenix, homeless people ride the air-conditioned light rail to avoid a heat so brutal it killed 155 people in the city and surrounding areas last year. An occasional siren wails as paramedics rush to help people sick from the heat.

Already devilishly hot for being in the Sonoran desert, Arizona’s largest city is also an “urban heat island,” a phenomenon that pushes up temperatures in areas covered