SAN ANTONIO -- The relentless temperatures make just about everything outside scalding hot.
If the temperature outside is 100-degrees, you can bet playscapes made out of plastic and metal are even hotter.
News 4 WOAI visited a playground off of Broadway, just north of Downtown, at high noon Monday. It was already scorching hot.
A little boy named Nicholas knows too well what it feels like to get burned on the playground. He suffered a burn on his back while playing on a playground slide. But he was lucky. A 2-year-old child ended up with second degree burns on his hands after playing on one.
News 4 WOAI used an infrared thermometer to measure just how hot some playground surfaces get.
When we checked a playground slide, the thermometer read 134-degrees. The children's swing was a white-hot 146-degrees. Some of the playground's coated metal steps read 133-degrees. The baby swing came in at a scorching 150-degrees.
The News 4 WOAI crew then tested the padded ground. It measured a whopping 180-degrees.
Doctors recommend families visit playgrounds in the morning or much later in the day, when it is cooler.
Parents should remember to touch surfaces themselves before they let their little ones hop onto them.
