With at least 28 heat deaths recorded this past week across the United States, not counting thousands of emergency room visits for heat-related illnesses, this summer is quickly turning into a record-breaker.

From Las Vegas, Nevada, where temperatures of 115 and higher have become commonplace to California’s record wildfires, the numbers are jaw-dropping.

Even Maryland, which likes to boast of a “middle temperament” that extends beyond politics to include weather (neither as steamy in summer as the Deep South nor as cold in winter as New England), has not been immune from the sizzling. The Free State recorded six heat-related deaths so far this summer, including four in Prince George’s County and one each in Anne Arundel County and Baltimore City. And the forecast is for potentially worse ahead with a possible high temperature of 101 degrees or higher in the Baltimore area by Monday.

Given all that, what can one say about the latest report from Baltimore Inspector General Isabel Mercedes Cumming that city solid waste workers in Cherry Hill lack access to basics like cold water, ice and fans in the middle of this heatwave? Promised improvements were nowhere to be found when her office conducted a surprise re-inspection of the Reedbird Avenue facility just eight days after this scathing finding in June.

Here’s the obvious conclusion: The Department of Public Works is grossly incompetent or doesn’t seem to have nearly enough concern for the health and welfare of employees whose job it is to pick up recycling, regardless of weather.

Mayor Brandon Scott and members of the Baltimore City Council claim to have concerns about the impact of scorching temperatures.

And to their credit, they’ve responsibly declared Code Red Extreme Heat Alerts, opened cooling centers, promoted safety tips, advised people to call 311 for details and even cut the ribbon on a reopened pool at Patterson Park. So why then is it so difficult to make sure DPW workers forced to labor outdoors in such weather have ice or Gatorade? Or working air conditioning in all their trucks or a working ice machine in their break room? Or a locker room with air conditioning or fans?

Too bad it requires an independent inspector general — whose primary job is to hunt down waste, fraud and abuse — to be the one to blow the whistle on indecent working conditions, too. DPW Director Khalil Zaied was confirmed in the agency’s top post just a month and a half ago so we are inclined to give him a one-time pass.

But this is hardly the first time the department has been found wanting. Look at the history with drinking water projects or solid waste collection or sewage backups in residential basements. You can blame some on aging infrastructure, perhaps some on lack of funding. But an inability to properly provide for employees laboring outdoors in 90-degree weather? That’s not a resource problem. That’s a basic management competency issue, and the buck has to stop at the mayor’s desk.

Making this scarier is that Maryland summers probably aren’t going to get cooler anytime soon. Climate change is rewriting the planet’s meteorological record books. One study suggests people born in 2020 or later will experience seven times as many heatwaves over their lifetimes as those of us born in 1960.

And those heatwaves will be hotter and last longer than they have in the past. This won’t be just about the city workers in South Baltimore. This is a warning for all of us that there are challenges ahead — even for climate change deniers like Donald Trump who can’t seem to accept global warming as anything other than a “hoax.”

Despite all this, Mayor Scott and council members are unlikely to have much trouble getting reelected this fall given the overwhelming Democratic advantage at the polls. But perhaps their constituents might at least expect them to first pull a DPW shift at Cherry Hill this summer. Then watch how fast the employee AC and ice machine are fixed.