Heat, Traffic Pose Early Seasonal Threats

Chief of Police Bruce Barstad reminds drivers not to leave children or pets unattended in vehicles during our warm season, even with the window slightly open. Temperatures in vehicles rise quickly and can easily lead to heatstroke and/or death for children and animals. At 80-degrees outside, your vehicle’s inside temperature can rise to 120-degrees or higher in an hour, quickly causing health issues for children and pets. If you see a child or pet left unattended in a vehicle with the windows rolled up, call the police.

Seasonal temperature changes can take residents off-guard. Tanja Fransen with the National Weather Service in Glasgow and Dr. Larry Kalkstein of the University of Miami collaborated in 2010 developing a rural heat health warning system. It was the first system of its kind in the world that focused on rural areas.

According to Fransen, the system has triggered a few events that forecasters looked at, but it has not led to an actual warned event since its implementation. Glasgow's record high is 113-degrees set on July 31, 1900. The warmest heat event in the past 10 years was 105-degrees on July 23, 2007 and 106-degrees the next day on July 24th. The overnight lows only dropped to 72-degrees on both of those days. Heat health issues tend to occur with rapid onset heat events early in thesummer, and then once the public is acclimated, it takes a longer-lasting event, including record high temperatures, very warm overnight temperatures and/or humidity to cause significant health issues.

Jan Null with Golden Gate Weather is an NWS partner for heat health issues. He warns that, "children’s thermoregulatory systems are not as efficient as an adult’s and their body temperatures warm at a rate 3 to 5 times faster than an adults." There is an average of 37 child heatstroke deaths a year, and there have already been four deaths in 2015.

Further information can be found on the National Weather Service website at http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/heat/index.shtml and on the Golden Gate Weather site at noheatstroke.org.

Barstad also reminds drivers to exercise caution at stop signs, yields and crosswalks. Summer months generally mean increased foot and bicycle traffic. He asked that drivers be sure to give the right of way to pedestrians.