Governor Stein Proclaims Heat Safety Week

Heat Safety Week 

2026

By The Governor Of The State Of North Carolina

A Proclamation

Whereas, amid the top three warmest years on record globally in 2023, 2024, and 2025, communities across North Carolina have felt the impacts of extreme heat in the summer months, from the hottest day at Cape Hatteras in more than 30 years to Raleigh’s all-time record high temperature to temperatures reaching the “Extreme Risk” category for humid heat in the mountain communities of Morganton and Fletcher; and 

Whereas, in North Carolina, where every year since 2001 and every summer since 1998 has recorded above-average nighttime low temperatures, communities are experiencing an increase in the number of nights with temperatures that do not go below 70 degrees, and the risk of heat-related illness and death increases when temperatures stay high overnight; and 

Whereas, heat-related illnesses can affect anyone regardless of age or physical condition and disproportionately affect people with underlying health conditions, infants and children, pregnant people, older adults, workers in hot outdoor and indoor environments, athletes, unhoused people, and low-income individuals who are more likely to live in locations without easy or affordable access to air conditioning; and 

Whereas, in the summer of 2025 that included the second warmest July on record statewide and the warmest month ever recorded based on nighttime low temperatures, North Carolina experienced more than 5,700 heat-related illness emergency department visits, a number far higher than any such number recorded in each of the previous five summers; and 

Whereas, heat-related illnesses and death are preventable; and

Whereas, from May to September each year, the Climate and Health Program at the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) sends out county-specific alerts when dangerous temperatures are expected and publishes weekly and annual reports on heat-related illness emergency department visits in North Carolina; and 

Whereas, the State Resilience Office at the NC Department of Environmental Quality (NCDEQ) offers tools such as the Heat Action Plan Toolkit, the North Carolina Resilience Exchange, and the North Carolina Resilient Communities Planning Guide to help local governments and community partners build resilience to the health impacts of high daytime and nighttime temperatures; and

Whereas, the NCDEQ State Resilience Office partners with the State Climate Office based at North Carolina State University to run the Planning for Extreme Heat Cohort, a program that trains local leaders to write a data-driven plan that aims to prevent and manage heat-related health impacts to people; and

Whereas, the NCDHHS Climate and Health Team partners with the State Climate Office to develop data-driven heat index thresholds for each of North Carolina’s 100 counties;

Now, Therefore, I, Josh Stein, Governor of the State of North Carolina, do hereby proclaim May 18 – 22, 2026, as “Heat Safety Week” in North Carolina and commend its observance to all residents.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and affixed the Great Seal of the State of North Carolina at the Capitol in Raleigh this twenty-eighth day of April in the year of our Lord two thousand and twenty-sixth and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and fiftieth.