EXPLAINER: Heat, humidity a perilous mix in immigrant deaths

By TAMMY WEBBER
Associated Press

An expert says the combination of heat and humidity would have quickly created life-threatening conditions inside the packed, un-airconditioned tractor-trailer where dozens of immigrants were found dead this week. It’s unclear how long the immigrants had been inside the trailer, but Jennifer Vanos, an assistant professor in climate and health at Arizona State University, says it likely would only take a couple of hours for temperatures to climb as high as 125 degrees or hotter. The death toll rose to 53 on Wednesday, two days after the tractor-trailer — packed with 67 people — was found abandoned on the edge of San Antonio. It’s the nation’s deadliest smuggling episode on the U.S.-Mexico border.