The hottest day yet
(AP) - It was so hot Monday that a local swim team cut short its morning practice because the water in the pool was too warm, and construction workers were drinking water by the gallon.
The state climatology office called Monday's heat the capper to the most sweltering July since the Dust Bowl era, while a Twin Cities power company pleaded with residents to conserve energy for a power grid straining to provide enough juice to keep fans spinning and air conditioners humming.
"It's been hot all around," said Peter Boulay, assistant state climatologist.
The National Weather Service was predicting highs near 100 in central and south Minnesota, and about 90 in the northwest. The heat index, a measure of temperature plus humidity, was expected to approach 105 to 110 in the Twin Cities.
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It was 99 degrees at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport around 2 p.m. If the temperature hit 100, it would only be the 61st time it has gotten that hot in Minnesota since 1891, Boulay said, and the first time since July 13, 1995.
And it wasn't just a hot day. "It will be the hottest July in the Twin Cities since 1935, and the third warmest on record," he said. The record for July 31, for the record, was 105 back in 1988.
A Bloomington pool offered no escape from the heat for Jenny Bussey, 17, of Chanhassen. Her swim team cut practice short early Monday because the water temperature was about 80 degrees, roughly 10 degrees above normal, and it was hard to swim.
"I drank a whole thing of Gatorade!" she said. "We still do the same workout, but when the water is a lot hotter, you get more fatigued a lot easier."
As she left the Bloomington Family Aquatic Center, Bussey said she wasn't looking forward to a hot afternoon at her lifeguard job at an outdoor pool in Chanhassen. Last summer, she fainted while climbing down from her stand on a hot day and woke up an instant later when she fell into the water.
She's being extra careful this year. On Sunday, "I think I went through 10 bottles of water out there," Bussey said. "This year our bosses are really good about bringing water out to the lifeguard stands."
Nate Olson, 20, was cleaning sewers Monday morning for the city of Bloomington, a suburb of Minneapolis. He was taking it easy, too, after watching one of his co-workers get sick from the heat last week.
"I have a big water jug," he said. "You just have to keep drinking all day long."
Jeff Ziebol, 37, was on a crew working on a new four-story parking ramp in Edina. The Bloomington man was dressed in the required leather boots and hard hat, but his jeans were rolled up to his knees so he could catch the breeze.
"I'll probably go through about two gallons of water today," he said. "I don't feel bad right now, if the breeze wasn't here we'd be done real quick."
During a break at the construction site, workers disappeared from the sun. Three workers sat on buckets and huddled in the small square of shade provided by a construction truck.
Mike Yeary, an assistant supervisor on the job, said there is an air-conditioned trailer on the site where workers can cool down.
"On a day like today, they will work if they feel like they can," he said. "These guys have enough common sense. They've worked in these conditions before."
Among the hardy few that weren't bothered by the heat was 72-year-old Floyd Pietz who sat on his motorized scooter, watching the ramp work through the fence. He's a fixture at the construction site. He wore a reflective hat and vest, gifts from the crew.
"I never get bored with this," he said. "It's better than sitting and watching the boob tube all day."
He said he arrived at 5:30 a.m. and was still watching shortly before noon. He sat in the sun, with a Pepsi bottle full of water and a towel over the handle bars of his scooter, even though he said "I don't sweat."
"The heat doesn't bother me, because I worked outdoors all my life," he said. When asked if he used sunscreen, he said he didn't need it, and he held up a tanned arm.
With heat advisories over most of the state on Monday, officials cautioned people to drink plenty of fluids, not to overexert themselves, and to check on the elderly and those who don't have air conditioning.
It was an especially hot day for about 1,700 Xcel Energy customers who were without power at 9 a.m. Monday. The figure was down from about 8,300 outages on Sunday as the power grid strained to sustain air conditioners.
The utility asked residents and businesses to turn their thermostats up and turn off unused lights and appliances. It seemed to be working, by noon Monday Xcel was reporting no major outages.
The company serves about 1 million customers in the Twin Cities and saw record demand on Friday of about 9,500 megawatts. Xcel said demand could reach 10,000 megawatts on Monday due to increased demand from businesses.
A break was in the forecast, however. The weather service said there was a 40 percent chance of thunderstorms for the Twin Cities by late Monday, and a 50 percent chance Tuesday.
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
