107 degrees in the shade, 120 degrees in the desert and people want to go hiking, here's me on that....

  We are in a heat wave in the Western U.S., Mark Twain said "everyone complains about the weather but no one doe's anything about it." I don't know about that, in his hey day there were still

Mark Twain. 

"rainmakers" selling people hope when there was a drought. This blog is about temperature, ambient temperatures. When I lived in the Coachilla valley of California, the valley where Palm Springs is located. We moved there in August of 1996, I put on a pair of shorts and did not wear anything else for 3 years, just shorts. I worked out side in an electrical power producing plant, that plant burned tree trimmings from the Los Angeles and surrounding areas. It was hot, dusty, smelly, dirty but good work. We were trained in dealing with the heat, a doctor would give a presentation once a month at a safety meeting giving us very good instructions on how to deal with it.
  We worked in a 2-3 person crew, taking shifts on the job if it was outside the shop. We would work for 1/2 hour, be releaved to the air conditioned shop for 3/4 hour, the people in the shop would continue to do prep work. We would dress for it, we wore a cotton hood over our heads. They are lightweight, tan in color, they were worn over the head with a small window for our faces. The face opening was even with the top of our eyebrows with the bottom just below our noses extended side to side at the edge of our eyes. Googles went over our eyes, then a dust mask to breath through, not a paper dust mask but an industrial 3m mask. Long sleeve cotton shirts, overalls, boots, gloves and that was pretty much our protection. The get up was indeed hot, but it was protection from the sun, heat and dust. I've added a link to Centers for disease control and prevention's guide on dealing with the heat, click here.
  We drank a lot of water, at least a gallon a day, room temperature and lot's of it. The company doctor advised us not to drink the sports drinks exclusively. A 50/50 solution was recommended, that's enough twice a day to replenish electrolytes. We would get soaked in sweat, as it dried we would look for the white "mineral" stains left behind. It can be an indicator on how often a sports drink should be consumed, heavy - drink it, non existent - pure water. I need to add however that we did have a tendency to drink too much gator aid, never doing any harm. Clear water supplemented with gator aid in moderation is in my opinion the best choice.
  The scourge of the desert is the fly, I don't know where they all come from but they show up thirsty. Any place there was water the flies would congregate, make a puddle in the sand, flies would cover it no matter how big it was edge to edge. It was very obvious the flies would start to die the closer to 120 degrees F the temperature got. At 122 degrees, no flies, at 122 degrees the human body can not keep cool. Ready.gov has a write up on precautions to take when in extremely hot temps, click here.

This is a long road in the desert, prepare for the worst but
expect for the best. 

  Even with our training, work rules and precautions we still had problems with the heat. I was on a 4 man crew rotating on a big job repairing a huge claw type machine. The temperature was over 120 degrees, we were working in the 1/2 hour 3/4 hour shift, it was hot. Mid afternoon everyone was feeling fine and the job was progressing well, although slow due to the heat. We were on top of a fuel pile of about 30 feet covering 5 acres or so, the claw was laying on top. When we got to the top one of the crew members passed out, no warning nothing, he just dropped like a sack of wheat. It's a very serious situation when that happens, we were all first responders as well as confined space rescue certified so we knew what to do. We carried him the 500 yards or so to the shop, the foreman called for assistance from the fire department. He recovered and continued working the next day. This particular man was from Texas, he had been out here for a few years, he could handle the heat, he knew to drink water, he was trained in what precautions to take in the heat. In other words heat stroke can happen to anyone, we can't afford to get too confident in our physical conditions.
  Arizona is contemplating creating a "heat hiking" law, (click here to read the news piece) Law enforcement doesn't think it's enforceable, first responders think it will keep people from calling for help, I say a public education program would most likely do more. Where I live we have "spare the air" days, intended to organize people to use less personal and more mass transit. Whether it works or not for cutting emissions I'm not sure of, but one thing it does is it alerts people not to exert ourselves in the heat, in other words it raises awareness. That may just be enough, I hiked in the heat just enough to learn I shouldn't, the mountains in the desert are beautiful. Maybe call the alert the "Too hot to hike" alarm, I bet people would listen and take it to heart. At the very least it would raise awareness and that's what preparing for emergency's is all about, become aware and think what can I do to make it better if it happens?
  It must be said there is a large group of high heat hikers whom are tourist, from country's with very little sun and no high temperatures. They want to experience what terrible hot heat is like, (we left the desert on a day that was 127 degrees) they have no experience, training or knowledge of the implications. I believe the local people know enough not to hike in the heat, desert dwellers are amazingly adaptable people.

I preferred this color and material
they are available fully sewn
together as well

  I've gone on long enough, in summary, if you have to go out when the temperature exceeds 100 degrees prepare for it. Start by drinking a full pint of water immediately upon waking up in the morning, drink another before leaving the house. Don't wait until you're thirsty to drink, sip water all day long, carry it with you. Ice cold water is OK, but room temperature goes down easier. Mix water and sports drinks 50/50, take a "salt" pill if the mineral tracers on your clothes are heavy. Protect your body with clothing, in the heat many times more is much better. Last understand your body, it will tell you when it is in trouble, if you do suffer heat exhaustion let those around you help you, we don't think we need the help but we do in that situation.
  Thanks for reading, drink water, rest, cool off and pay attention to the temperature and how your body is reacting to it, "when in dought don't go out."

jimandkate    emergencykitsplus.com  emergency kit supplies