Triple digit weather heats up Lodi area

At 11:15 a.m. Nick West, 8, already had his shirt off to keep cool at Lodi Lake on Wednesday, and it would take just a few hours for the temperature to reach the triple digits in certain parts of Lodi.

At different times of the day, thermometer readings kept rising at several public areas in Lodi, reaching a few degrees higher than 100 in some areas by mid-afternoon. From Lodi Lake to Wal-Mart, people were trying to escape the heat any way they could.

As the temperature rose, people appeared to have had the air conditioning cranked up as Lodi surpassed last year's peak energy use.

Bob Anderson, a utility operator at Lodi Electric Utility, said Lodi used 125.4 megawatts of power Wednesday, about five megawatts more than its peak usage of 2004 that came Aug. 11.

With high temperatures comes a higher risk for heat stroke and heat related sicknesses, and children and adults need to look out for themselves and their pets, said Debbie Aspling of the Lodi Memorial Hospital.

Throughout the day, people around town were finding different ways too keep their body temperatures low, such as constantly drinking fluids and staying inside air-conditioned places.

At 11:09 a.m. at Lodi Lake, a small breeze cooled the children scrambling through building blocks, playing video games and digging through sand under the shade at Lodi Lake. The temperature was 86 degrees under the sun.

"I'm hot -- I'm wearing black," Erika West, 12, said while pinching the middle of her shirt away from her chest, trying to fan herself off.

"I'm definitely going swimming," she added.

Ryan Coe, who coordinates the activities at Safari Summer camp, said campers usually stay out of the sun and play in the shade.

"The only time they're out in the sun is if they're in the water," he said. "They get hot, but we make sure they're hydrated."

Children aren't the only ones that should be hydrated, said Janette deJong, an animal service officer at the Lodi Animal Shelter. She said peoples' pets need to have water readily available at all times.

At 11:38 a.m. the temperature hit 92 degrees in the parking lot of the Lodi Animal Shelter.

Alejandro Garcia, a Lodi resident, drove his long-haired dog Pistachio to the Kettleman Lane shelter in the back of his pick-up truck. He guided his heavily panting dog down from the truck and tied it to a tree in the shade so he could ask an animal service officer exactly what Pistachio's breed was.

"Never, ever, ever leave your dog in a car, even in mild weather," deJong said. "You're basically cooking your dog in a very hot greenhouse."

She also suggested pet owners should keep a plastic baby pool in the backyard so their dog can occasionally get wet and cool down.

"Always make sure you have shade and water for your dog," she said. "And walk your dog in the morning or when the ground is cooler."

A few blocks down Kettleman Lane at Wal-Mart, the large parking lot was full of shoppers squinting from the bright sun and rushing to get into the air-conditioned store.

The temperature on Wal-Mart's asphalt parking lot, at noon, hit 97 degrees.

Stockton resident Marie Freitas and her two daughters, Tiffany and Makayla, were headed in to the store to get some snacks and various items for a weekend trip to Shasta Lake.

"My husband's car has no air conditioning," Marie Freitas said. "We all put cold wash cloths around our necks on the way here."

As the day progressed and the temperature rose, places in the sun were becoming bare.

No one was waiting at the non-shaded GrapeLine bus stop on Turner Road. At 1:31 p.m. the temperature at the bench heated up to 101 degrees.

At Lodi Memorial Hospital, it was slightly breezy at 1:57 p.m., but it was only one degree cooler than the north side of town at 100 degrees.

No one has been checked into the hospital this summer for heat related sicknesses, said Aspling of Lodi Memorial Hospital. She said she thinks people have become more aware of heat and health issues with recent media coverage.

"There's been a lot of warnings for people to take care of themselves," she said. "People are staying in air-conditioned places like the mall and library to keep cool if they don't have air-conditioning at home."

Mike and Evelyn Dickey chose to go to an air-conditioned ice cream shop to escape the heat in downtown Lodi.

"We're from Oregon," Evelyn said, licking her ice cream. "The heat is okay but it could be about 20 degrees cooler."

The couple had traveled down from McMinnville, Ore. to visit relatives in Stockton.

As the day went on, the heat did not seem to get much worse than it had been during the early afternoon.

Just before 5 p.m., the day's official high temperature was logged at Lodi Fire Station 3.

Firefighter David Bolognini recorded the temperature At 4:47 p.m., it was 100 degrees, which was also the highest temperature of the day in southern Lodi.

"The temperature can be cooler on this side of town," Bolognini said. "But it's still pretty hot out here."

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Triple digit weather heats up Lodi area

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