By Staff
Clif Knight, Hartselle Enquirer
A heat wave with the index topping out in triple digits has Hartselle area folks coming to the municipal swimming pool in record numbers, according to Lacy Garnett, pool manager.
"We had our biggest crowd of the season on Saturday (July 23)," Garnett said.
"Just about everybody was in the water and they stayed there longer than usual." The temperature on that date soared to 95 degrees, the hottest day of 2005. After factoring in the humidity, the heat index was 108.
The pool also proved to be the most popular "cooling off" place in town on Sunday and Monday when mid-afternoon temperatures ranged from 95 to 97 degrees. "The water's 79 degrees," Garnett reported after making a check at 2:30 p.m. Monday. "That's cool when the heat index outside is 110."
She said lifeguards, who are protected from the sun by umbrellas, are rotated every 10 to 15 minutes to prevent overexposure to the heat.
Weather forecasters said a large high-pressure ridge over the midsection of the country was causing the unusually hot weather in the Midwest and South.
They predicted 10-degree cooler temperatures later in the week due to the movement of cooler air from north to south.