The Cook County Medical Examiner’s case archive flags 14 deaths in 2026 as heat-related — the most in any year since the archive begins in August 2014, and more than the previous high of 8 in 2019. Eleven followed an incident in Chicago, and eight are dated July 1 through July 4. Fourteen is a floor: 547 deaths from June through September are still pending a cause. Cold remains the larger toll in the same records, with 653 cold-related deaths from 2015 through 2025 against 49 heat-related.
Cook County Medical Examiner Case Archive (cjeq-bs86), retrieved and last updated September 17, 2026, counted with aggregate queries only · “heat-related” and “cold-related” are the archive’s flags for deaths in which hot or cold weather was a cause or contributing cause · deaths under the Medical Examiner’s jurisdiction only · no person, address or date narrower than four days is published · counts are not rates · no cause is assigned to any changeEleven full years, and this summer
| Year | Heat-related deaths | Of them, in Chicago | Cold-related deaths | Of them, in Chicago |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 4 | 3 | 23 | 12 |
| 2016 | 3 | 3 | 31 | 18 |
| 2017 | 2 | 0 | 33 | 25 |
| 2018 | 4 | 4 | 57 | 43 |
| 2019 | 8 | 7 | 76 | 56 |
| 2020 | 7 | 3 | 83 | 59 |
| 2021 | 2 | 2 | 83 | 62 |
| 2022 | 7 | 7 | 112 | 83 |
| 2023 | 3 | 2 | 55 | 40 |
| 2024 | 5 | 2 | 56 | 35 |
| 2025 | 4 | 3 | 44 | 23 |
| 2026 (through Sept. 17) | 14 | 11 | 38 | 28 |
Heat-related deaths ran from 2 to 8 a year from 2015 through 2025, 49 in all. This year’s 14 are one short of the two highest earlier years combined, 15, and 12 of them are dated in July, eight within its first four days. None is dated in June; one each falls in August and September.
Cold still counts for more
Across 2015 through 2025 the archive flags 653 deaths as cold-related, 13.3 times the heat-related count, with a high of 112 in 2022. The two flags keep to their seasons: 483 of the archive’s 705 cold-related deaths, 68.5 percent, are dated December through February, and 45 of its 63 heat-related deaths, 71.4 percent, June through August. The flags record the archive’s findings on cause, not temperature readings, and a few sit outside the season they name: eight heat-related deaths are dated October through December.
Why 14 is a floor
The archive holds deaths whose cause is still being determined, labeled PENDING. From June through September 2026 there are 43, 144, 195 and 165 of them, 547 in all, while 14 heat-related deaths are already flagged in those months, 12 of them in July. Any of the pending cases later found to involve heat would add to this year’s count; as of September 17, 2026, it cannot be smaller than 14 unless a flag is withdrawn.
What the archive confirms, and what it cannot tell you
Confirmed, where the archive records them: a death’s date, its weather flags, its manner label and the city of the incident. By manner, 37 of the archive’s heat-related deaths are labeled accidents and 26 natural; 677 of its cold-related deaths are accidents. Not shown here, by this page’s choice: any address, place smaller than the city, age or other detail of any person, or any single day’s count. Not in the archive: deaths outside the Medical Examiner’s jurisdiction, temperatures, and the circumstances of any death beyond its flags.
Where the record lives
The Medical Examiner Case Archive sits on Cook County’s data portal and is updated daily; every figure here was computed from it as retrieved on September 17, 2026. This desk’s reading of the same archive’s opioid deaths uses the same aggregate-only method.
The bottom line
Cook County’s Medical Examiner has already flagged more heat-related deaths in 2026 than in any earlier year of its archive, 14, most of them in Chicago and eight in the first four days of July, and hundreds of summer cases are still pending. Cold-related deaths remain far more numerous in the same records.
Three questions the archive can answer
What was the previous high for heat-related deaths? Eight, in 2019. Which year had the most cold-related deaths? 2022, with 112. How many 2026 heat-related deaths followed an incident in Chicago? Eleven of the 14.
- Source: the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Case Archive (cjeq-bs86), retrieved September 17, 2026.
- Queries: grouped counts by year and month of death, the heat and cold flags, the manner label, the pending label and whether the incident city is Chicago, plus one count for July 1 through July 4, 2026. No record was downloaded; addresses, coordinates, zip codes, wards, community areas, causes of death and personal characteristics were never selected.
- Years: full years 2015 through 2025; the archive begins in August 2014.
- Not here: no rate, no cause for any change, no detail of any person or place, and no advice.
Computed by KCM Desk from the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Case Archive, retrieved September 17, 2026. Human-guided and edited — about this desk. If you spot an error, corrections come first.
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