It's a heat wave
By From staff reports
Published in News on June 15, 2015 1:46 PM
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News-Argus/MELISSA KEY
Macy Weaver, 3, gives her mother a big smile while playing with Little Mermaid toys at her first sprinkler day on Thursday. Every Thursday during the summer, the sprinkler runs from 3 until 4 p.m. at Cornerstone Commons in downtown Goldsboro.
Dangerous record high temperatures are expected to reach triple digits today and Tuesday with the searing heat made even more insufferable by the stifling humidity that makes the air feel even hotter.
Wayne County residents are being urged to exercise caution as heat indexes for today will reach 100 to 106 degrees.
A heat advisory is in effect from noon today and until 7 p.m. tonight. Temperatures will be in the high 90s and low 100s all week, with peak heat hours occurring from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day.
"We are expecting records to fall today in Raleigh and Fayetteville," said Mike Moneypenny, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Raleigh. "We are expecting record heat today and tomorrow."
June's normal high averages 87 to 88 degrees -- a "solid" 10 to 12 degrees below what people can expect over the next two days, Moneypenny said.
People and animals are not the only ones being affected by the heat wave. New Hope Heating and Air Conditioning employee Jacob Smith says the company has had a 200 percent increase in call volume since last weekend.
"We've had a guy who waited too long, and now we really wish he hadn't," he said.
Smith said prevention is the key to keeping cool this summer. It is easier, and cheaper, to maintain than repair. A lot of companies offer annual cleaning contracts to check in on the system and to clean it up.
If a unit has even a 16th inch of dust, it puts strain on it. Smith said that ignoring the small freon leak during a heat wave is about the worst thing you can do.
"The more you use it, the more it leaks," he said.
Using fast fixes on your system during a heat wave might not cut it either.
"Don't run it at 78 degrees to limp it along," Smith said. "Keep it as cool as you usually do and just call."
For a heat wave, consider an emergency window unit if your central unit has problems.
"Just don't expect your unit to work perform in a 115 degree heat like it does in 80 degrees," he said.
The cause for the misery is a high pressure system over the Gulf of Mexico that is just "sitting there and stewing," Moneypenny said.
It is also preventing clouds that can be the source of some relief in the form of shade and rain, he said.
The system is expected to weekend over the weekend when the temperatures are forecast to remain in the low to mid 90s.
This level of heat makes it dangerous for outdoor workers and anyone who must spend prolonged time outside.
"Stay out of the heat is the best advice we can give," National Weather Service warning coordination meteorologist Nick Petro said.
Petro also said if you find yourself in a situation where you must be outside for a prolonged period of time, it is best to drink plenty of water and to find shade.
"You would be surprised at how much people sweat under these conditions," Petro said. "You lose a lot more water than you think."
People should also be on the lookout for symptoms of heat-related illnesses, Petro said.
"If anyone starts feeling dizzy or confused they should find shade and drink water to hydrate immediately," he said. "Just find a spot to get cool and make sure to stay hydrated."
Petro said if a resident's air conditioning breaks, there are plenty of places for them to go and cool off for a while.
"I would tell them to even go to the library or a shopping center," Petro said. "Just anywhere that has air conditioning."
Petro said it is hard to forecast what the weather will be like for the rest of the summer, but it seems that temperatures will reach above average levels overall this season.
And as for rain this week -- don't count on it.
"It's going to be spotty rain the rest of this week, there is some chance of it," Petro said. "You should consider yourself lucky to get a rain shower this week."
Dr. Lloyd Smith, director of the emergency room at Wayne Memorial Hospital, said this morning that so far no severe cases have been treated by his department. Then he took a moment to explain the various types and how to prevent them.
"There's different kinds of heat illness, the most severe is heat stroke," he said. Symptoms can include having an elevated body temperature in the range of 104 to 105 degrees, having a seizure, liver damage and kidney damage. The treatment in such cases is immediate cooling, with either ice or ice water.
"There's heat cramps where the only symptom is cramping, the body temperature is normal," he said. "The best treatment is to have a sports drink, like Gatorade, a good drink to help replace the fluids and electrolytes.
"There's what's called heat syncope (the medical term for fainting). Someone gets too hot and passes out."
Treatment for that is rest and plenty of fluids, occasionally intravenous fluids, he said.
"There's also heat exhaustion, which is where somebody feels extremely weak and tired and difficult to exert themselves but not passing out or having a temperature," he said.
For that, the recommendation is rest and oral fluids.
The best advice is prevention, Dr. Smith said, which boils down to consuming plenty of the "good kind of fluids" -- water as well as sports drinks, such as Gatorade.
Most people do not even realize they are lacking enough fluids and only realize it when it's almost too late.
"If you start feeling dizzy or light-headed, rest, drink plenty of fluids and try to get out of the hot environment," he said.
One way to tell if the body is becoming dehydrated is to monitor bathroom habits.
"You want to make sure that you're urinating normally," the doctor said. "Your kidneys can tell -- if you're not, urine will be concentrated and darker."
Extra efforts also need to be taken to protect children and animals from the heat.
Several weeks ago, a parent accidentally locked the keys in the car. A child was in the vehicle at the time.
Fortunately, police arrived quickly and resolved the issue. But that has not always been the case, said Shelly Willis, NC Pre-K/Safe Kids Coordinator with Partnership for Children of Wayne County.
Since 1998, more than 636 children across the U.S. have died from heatstroke when unattended in a vehicle. Already this year, there have been five children in that situation to die from heatstroke.
Heatstroke, also known as hyperthermia, is the leading cause of non-crash, vehicle-related deaths for children. It happens when the body isn't able to cool itself quickly enough and the body temperatures rise to dangerous levels, something children are especially at risk of having since their bodies heat up five times faster than an adults.
"We're trying to encourage parents to be on the lookout, neighborhood children are out for the summer, they're out playing games," she said. "They're playing hide-and-seek and might innocently find an unlocked car and decide to hide inside.
"If the child safety locks are engaged, they can't get out."
Parents and caregivers are advised to keep car doors locked at all times and also be aware of surroundings in parking lots.
"Keep an eye out for children and pets so if you do see one, immediately call 911," she said.
Immediacy is the key, since the interior of a car can become "like an oven" in a matter of minutes, she said.
"A car can heat up 19 degrees in 10 minutes and cracking a window doesn't help," she said. "Heatstroke can happen anytime, anywhere. We don't want to see this happen to any family."
Even parents who think they can leave a child or an animal in a running vehicle should be cautioned against doing so.
"People are mean -- someone can jump in and leave with the car, or it can cut off," she said.
And for those new, sleep-deprived parents or those not used to dropping off a child at day care, an easy rule of thumb is to leave something like a purse or a wallet in the back seat, or the left shoe. The latter may sound silly, Ms. Willis said, but most adults would not get out of a vehicle without one shoe.
"That will remind them to check the back seat and remove the child," she said.
Dr. Marlee Ray, executive director of WAGES, said her staff is trained to look out for themselves as well as their clients.
The Head Start program, which runs on the schools calendar, is not under way but the Early Head Start, for children birth to age 3, is in session.
"We do work with those parents," she said. "We also monitor the amount of time that children spend outside to ensure that they're getting outside time and fresh air but also that they're being very sensitive to the heat and not over-exposing children to the heat."
There is also a stopgap method of checking on seniors served through programs like Meals on Wheels.
"We do share information with our seniors, both who are getting congregate meals but also with home-delivered meals, to advise them to stay inside, to stay cool and to stay in contact with friends and neighbors if they should have any problems," she said. "I think we have some fans that we have given out to clients when we have realized that they have had no other source, so that they can get some air movement."
The WAGES weatherization crew, which works to educate homeowners on ways to save energy, is also given guidance on keeping themselves safe from the climbing temperatures, Ms. Ray said.
"They have coolers of Gatorade and we get ice every morning," she said. "We take precautions. They have work they do on the roof, they do that first and then the work in the homes they do later in the day.
"It's amazing the amount of ice and liquid that we want them to have all day."