Hundreds of Hajj pilgrims die in extreme heat

The Associated Press, reporting from Mecca, also spoke of a three-digit death toll and described people queuing outside an emergency medical clinic seeking information about missing relatives.

While it is unclear how many of these deaths were due to the heat, this year’s Hajj coincided with an unusually severe heatwave for June. During the multi-day pilgrimage, temperatures reached 51.8 degrees Celsius at times. More than 1.8 million people took part in the pilgrimage.

Mecca is the holiest city in Islam, the birthplace of the Prophet Mohammed, and the Hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam – a ritual that every Muslim who has the means must perform at least once in their life. But Mecca is also inland and is hit by the humid air of the Red Sea. Many pilgrims are elderly. People are crowded into a very small space. Over the course of about five days, they can spend several dozen hours outdoors.

The result shows – in this case – that mass outdoor gatherings can become potentially more deadly as temperatures in parts of the world rise beyond human tolerance.

Over the years, Saudi Arabia has taken steps to reduce the dangers, including setting up over 100,000 air-conditioned tents, distributing water and umbrellas, planting trees and creating facilities for heat-related illnesses. However, a paper published this year by Saudi researchers said that while these measures have been helpful, “there are concerns about the adequacy of current mitigation measures in the face of increasing heat.”

In Mecca, like much of the world, the number of dangerously hot days is increasing rapidly. According to an analysis conducted last year by The Washington Post and the nonprofit CarbonPlan, by 2050 Mecca will have an estimated 182 days of dangerous heat for people outdoors in the sun. Equally notable, there will be an estimated 54 days when the heat is dangerous even in the shade, compared with almost zero days at the turn of the century. By these standards, Mecca will be one of the most inhospitable places on Earth.

A 2019 study on extreme heat during Hajj pointed to “a significant warming trend over the past 30 years of almost 2°C,” above the global average, which was attributed to human-induced warming.

“I’ve never experienced such heat. It was very exhausting,” said Adonis Imam, a doctor from Augusta, Georgia, who was in Mecca. “We got exhausted pretty quickly. Even short walks were a strain on us.” Imam, 36, said Saudi misting and cooling measures helped, and groups were advised not to be outdoors between noon and late afternoon.

The dates of Hajj are based on the shorter lunar calendar, meaning the mass gathering occurs gradually across all seasons. Last year, when it took place a little later in June, thousands of people were treated for heat exhaustion.

The 2019 document noted that heat stress could be expected to increase if the pilgrimage (Hajj) again falls in the hottest months of the year between 2047 and 2052.

In 1985, when the Hajj was already being held in scorching hot conditions, more than 1,000 people died of heat stroke, according to a study in the Annals of Saudi Medicine.

Saudi Arabia has not given a death toll, although its state news agency had previously reported several thousand cases of heat stress and sunstroke. On Wednesday, the state news agency said the hajj was a “success,” citing the effective implementation of “all plans related to security, prevention, organization, health, services and traffic management.”

Sarah Dadouch in Beirut contributed to this report.