Fair-goers scorched by heartland heat wave take refuge under misters as some schools let out early
FALCON HEIGHTS, Minnesota — Visitors to the Minnesota State Fair sought refuge in a fog on Monday, while some schools in the Midwest closed classes early or canceled sports practices.
Temperatures neared the 100s, combined with oppressive humidity, made it feel like 105 to 115 degrees (40 to 46 degrees Celsius) in the heart of the country, the National Weather Service said. The agency issued heat warnings or advisories for large parts of Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, Illinois, Minnesota and Wisconsin.
“Records are going to be broken today,” warned Ashton Robinson Cook, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland.
Several cities opened cooling centers, including in Des Moines, Iowa, where city buses were available to shuttle people to the sites for free. Experts urged those who went outside to drink plenty of water.
“It’s definitely steamy,” said Dr. Haley Taormina, an emergency physician for Regions Hospital EMS, as she treated fairgoers in Minnesota for heat illnesses.
By 11 a.m., she had already seen firefighters cutting off the rings of two people’s fingers after they swelled from the heat and salty fairground food. Extra health workers were deployed to the fair’s medical stations, and air-conditioned city buses were parked nearby to give the sultry fairgoers a place to escape the heat.
At the fairgrounds, Blake Perkins of Princeton, Minnesota, watched his giggling daughters, ages 8 and 7, play under one of the water sprayers and plan which rides to ride next. “Thick and wet,” he described the sticky conditions.
Mikosa Taylor of St. Paul took a sip to stay hydrated.
“We’re really trying to make sure we stay cool and we’re bringing kids inside if we need to, and we’re staying with the nebulizers if we need to,” she said.
Brandie Jackson wore a battery-powered cooling fan around her neck as she fanned herself with a piece of paper. But she’s from Shreveport, Louisiana, so the heat and humidity weren’t unusual for her. “This is the norm,” she said.
Meanwhile, Detroit Public Schools implemented a three-hour early release for students Monday and Tuesday because of the scorching temperatures. The district said in a message on its webpage that it will decide Monday night whether to extend the early release until Wednesday. Only 30% of the district’s schools have air conditioning available, a spokeswoman said.
The district has begun a 20-year master plan for its facilities and expects that within five years, virtually all schools will have new HVAC and air conditioning systems.
DTE Energy, which provides electricity to much of southeastern Michigan and the state’s Thumb region, said the utility is monitoring the energy load on its circuits and making adjustments as needed to keep customers supplied with power during times of high demand.
“Our System Operation Center teams and field crews are working around the clock to prepare for the high heat and potential storms forecast this week,” DTE Energy said in an email.
In Chicago, Mayor Brandon Johnson declared “summer is over!” as students in the nation’s fourth-largest school district returned to classes Monday. Johnson, a former teacher and union organizer, visited a Northwest elementary school to mark the occasion.
But with temperatures expected to soar into the mid-90s, Chicago officials said recess and physical education classes would be held indoors Monday and Tuesday. District officials also canceled outdoor sports games scheduled for the start of the week.
All classrooms in the district’s more than 600 schools have air conditioning, but common areas in older buildings, such as hallways, often do not. District officials said that if the air conditioning units fail, they would provide other cooling equipment, such as chillers.
In addition, the city of Chicago has opened more than 250 “cooling centers” to the public through Wednesday so residents can get help.
In Indiana, all high school sports programs and events at Gary Community Schools were canceled Monday and Tuesday, while all high school sports teams were ordered to practice indoors without exception, the northwest Indiana district said in an email Monday.
By midweek, the heat will shift south and east, said Cook, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
“The cooling is coming,” he said. “It’s going to take a while.”
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Corey Williams in Detroit and Sophia Tareen in Chicago contributed to this report. Hollingsworth reported from Mission, Kansas.