SAN ANTONIO – It is dangerously hot outside: this is San Antonio’s second day of summer temperatures topping 100 degrees.
A plane full of passengers sweated it out for two hours Sunday on the tarmac at San Antonio International Airport. The plane had no air conditioning and two people got sick from the extreme heat.
“The heat index is probably going to be 110,” Frank Mery with the Japanese Tea Garden says.
Mery and his coworkers have one of the stickiest jobs around: making flowers bloom even when the humidity makes the rest of us droop.
“We’d probably faint if we went inside into the air conditioning,” Mery says.
The gardeners say it’s easier than you think to beat the heat – you just have to be smart about it.
They take a cue from construction workers who take regular water breaks and wear wide-brimmed hard hats or bandanas to block the sun.
"We also try to get the hardest part of the day's work schedule done in the morning so it's not cumbersome in the afternoon,” Mery says.
That’s also the game plan at a basketball camp where San Antonio Academy staff teach the X’s, O’s, and H2O’s.
The kids get breaks every 25 minutes when they’re inside and every 15 minutes when they’re outside to relax and refuel.
"Oh it's a huge concern,” Adam Harvey with San Antonio Academy says. “Last summer was the hottest summer I can remember since I've been alive."
“It’s hot,” walker Maren Harbour agrees.
She’s keeping her four-legged friends hydrated at Hardberger Park.
"I wish there were more of these along the way,” Harbour says as her dogs drink from a water fountain made for pets. “We’re planning on going to the pool after this. The dogs are just not invited.”
It’s official: the dog days of summer are here.
The city is once again sponsoring
Project Cool, a program that gives seniors free box fans so they can stay cool. Visit
Project Cool’s website to request or donate a fan.
