interior region. By the end of July, the sweltering heat in California subsided, although the number of confirmed or suspected heat-related deaths climbed to 163 as county coroners worked through a backlog of cases. A report from California Climate Change Center published in 2009 determined that the heat caused two to three times the number of deaths estimated by coroners in seven California counties. By July 25, California authorities documented at least 38 deaths related to the heat in 11 counties. Temperatures reached 110–115 °F (43–46 °C) in the central valley of California July 23–24. State officials said it was the worst heat wave to hit Northern and Southern California simultaneously in 57 years. Front-page newspaper coverage described some individual deaths. By July 29, the mounting death toll left the coroner's office in Fresno overwhelmed and double-stacking bodies. There were also widespread animal deaths in California, with a veterinarian reporting 15 heat-related pet deaths as early as July 24. The impact on farm animals and agriculture was also becoming apparent, with the death of more than 25,000 cattle and 700,000 fowl, prompting emergency measures by the state. Meteorology Temperatures hit 118 °F (48 °C) on July 21 in Phoenix, making it the hottest day since 1995 and one of the 11 hottest since 1895, when temperature records were first kept in the city. California temperatures began reaching record levels by July 22. In one section of the City of Los Angeles, Woodland Hills, the temperature reached 119 °F (49 °C) making it the highest recorded temperature in the county and within the city border breaking the old record of in Canoga Park. The unusual daytime heat resulted in extremely high overnight temperatures. Needles, California recorded a low temperature for Sunday, July 23 at 5 am., of 100 °F (38 °C) and in the LA basin the same night, Burbank recorded an overnight low of 77 °F (25 °C). The California heat wave broke local records. According to some reports it was "hotter for longer than ever before, and the weather patterns that caused the scorching temperatures were positively freakish." Fresno, in the central California valley, had six consecutive days of 110 degree-plus Fahrenheit temperatures. Beginning July 31 and into early August, the Midwest, Ontario, and Atlantic states also began experiencing the heat. Temperatures approached the 100 mark in Rochester, New York on August 1 and were coupled with the highest