Has the summer heat caught you off-guard?
The National Weather Service (NWS) and Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management have designated today as Iowa Heat Awareness Day.
And just in time, as Creston saw highs of 86 and 88 Saturday and Sunday, and expects temperatures to rise to the low 90s this weekend.
According to State Climatologist Harry Hillaker of the Iowa Department of Agriculture, however, high temperatures aren’t the only danger.
“Sometimes — and we’ve seen this quite a bit in recent summers — we’ve had fairly wet weather, and our temperatures haven’t on the face of things looked all that extreme. But the dew point temperature — which is how cool you have to get the air to get dew to form — sometimes those can be up to around 80 degrees in the very worst circumstances. And when you have that much humidity, even a temperature not much above normal can create what feels like, to our body, temperature more like 105, 110 degrees, which is obviously not an everyday occurrence in Iowa,” Hillaker said.
Hillaker went on to explain there’s a misconception of the percieved hottest part of the day. Though the sun’s heat is most intense when it’s highest in the sky — around 1:30 p.m. in Iowa — the temperature will likely continue to increase throughout the afternoon.
“Typically,” Hillaker explained, “the highest actual temperature would be around 3 to 5 p.m. in the late afternoon. And, even though the sun is getting somewhat low in the sky by then, it’s still putting out more energy than the earth’s atmosphere is able to dissipate, so the temperature keeps on rising.”
Even so, for many there’s no choice in the matter.
If you must be outside and active in the heat of the day, Hillaker recommends a wide-brimmed hat that reaches all around the head.
“Your head,” he explained, “is one of the more difficult parts of your body to keep cool. Your body tries to keep blood flow to the brain at all costs, and therefore keeping that part of the body cooler is going to help you out in other ways as well.”
To protect the rest of your body from the sun’s heat, Hillaker recommends loose-fitting, light clothing that retains the body’s perspiration.
“Think of the Middle-East,” he remarked. “A very hot climate where people wear long robes from head to toe. That sounds crazy, but actually that’s a very effective way of keeping your perspiration on your body, which is a great method of keeping your body cooler. It may not smell so good, but if you want to stay safe it’s actually better to keep that perspiration on you rather than leaving your skin exposed, where it’s going to dry out more quickly.”
Hillaker concluded by citing the importance of staying hyrdrated.
“Plain old water is probably the best thing you could be taking to stay hydrated,” Hillaker said.
“And don’t wait until you’re already dying of thirst — if you’ve waited that long, you’ve probably waited too long.”
Additionally, the NWS stresses the importance of taking breaks often to cool down, wearing light-colored clothing to reflect sunlight, eating easy-to-digest foods such as fruits or salads and checking on neighbors during periods of extremely hot and humid weather.