Montana has grappled with days of record-breaking heat this summer. As climate forecasts project heat waves to become more common and more intense in the future, research on the impacts to residents outside of major urban cities is limited.  

“We have like 16 fans going,” says Alyssa Alsop. She lives in a subsidized apartment complex in Columbia Falls with no air conditioning. She says it’s been so hot inside, her one-and-a-half-year-old daughter has been sick.

“She started puking every night, probably a good three times a night. I’m like, ‘she’s too hot.’”