Finding relief from this heat
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House-cooling tips
Want easy tips to keep cool? Mark Durbin from FirstEnergy offers these five tips to save money and energy:
Shut vents and close doors in unused rooms. “Don’t pay any money to cool those rooms down,” Durbin said.
Set your air-conditioning unit to a higher temperature. Durbin says increasing the thermostat by one degree can save 3 percent on energy.
Don’t have a lot of electric devices near thermostat. “Your air conditioner is going to work harder even though it doesn’t have to,” Durbin said.
Close shades and blinds. Durbin says it’s an easy way to keep the hot sun out and the maximize the cool air inside.
Defer using appliances that give off heat. Stay away from using the oven or range. “That’s going to be advantageous because you’re not making your AC work harder.”
Source: FirstEnergy
Staff report
YOUNGSTOWN
The weekend will bring “somewhat of a cooling trend” to the Mahoning Valley with temperatures in the low 90s.
Kids Cooling Off


The Youngstown Fire Dept. provided some relief from the heat for city youngsters today.
That Martin Thompson, a National Weather Service hydrometeorologist technician, could say that with a straight face shows how hot it’s been the past two days.
The high temperature should drop to about 92 degrees today, 90 Saturday and 89 Sunday, according to the National Weather Service forecast.
The temperature hit 97 degrees with a heat index of 106 on Thursday, and 93 degrees with a 105 heat index a day earlier. Heat index combines temperature and humidity.
The record high temperature in the Valley on July 21 is 99, set in 1936.
It will remain unseasonably warm next week, but not as hot as the past couple of days.
The high temperature should be in the upper 80s Monday, in the mid-80s Tuesday and Wednesday, and should return to the upper 80s Thursday, according to the NWS.
The average temperature for this time of the year in the Mahoning Valley is 81 degrees to 82 degrees, according to NWS records.
The hottest day on record in the Valley is July 10, 1936, when it hit 103 degrees.
Despite the hottest temperatures in years, it appears the Valley successfully weathered the heat.
Demand for water wasn’t much more than normal for the 220,000 customers in Mahoning and Trumbull counties at the Mahoning Valley Sanitary District, said Thomas Holloway, its chief engineer.
For example, 24.6 million gallons were used July 11 while 24.8 million gallons were used Wednesday, when the high hit 93 degrees.
“That’s not a significant difference,” Holloway said. “The hot weather is not making any difference. I am kind of surprised that with the hot weather the amount of water use has not gone up by much.”
Blackouts throughout Northeast Ohio were nonexistent, according to FirstEnergy Corp., parent company of Ohio Edison, which services more than 2 million throughout the state.
“The system that we have is a very robust system,” said Mark Durbin, a spokesman for FirstEnergy. “It’s designed to sustain days like this.”
Durbin said there were a few widely scattered power outages; one occurred late Wednesday night in Hubbard.
PJM Interconnection, which manages the electric grid for 13 Midwest and Mid-Atlantic states, said the peak energy on Thursday was 158,704 megawatts, topping the record of 158,448 set back on Aug. 2, 2006.
One megawatt is generally enough to supply energy to 1,000 homes; consumers often use between 100,000 and 120,000 megawatts on the average summer day, said Paula DuPont-Kidd of PJM.
“It’s obviously the highest demand we’ve ever had to manage,” she said. “And we haven’t had to use any extraordinary measures to meet the demand.”
Michiganders weren’t nearly as lucky, where nearly 30,000 in Metro Detroit were left without power and many were subjected to rolling blackouts.
Boardman fire received one call relating to heat exhaustion Thursday.
“I’m surprised there weren’t more calls,” said Chief George Brown. “Most people that you talk to have made the decision to stay inside and not to go and do things, and that’s probably a good thing.”
John A. McNally IV, Mahoning County commissioners chairman, urged county residents to check on the well-being of their elderly neighbors during the heatwave.
At Thursday’s commissioners’ meeting, McNally also urged those suffering without air conditioning to go to designated cooling shelters, such as the Salvation Army, or to air conditioned public libraries or enclosed shopping malls.
At the Youngstown Metropolitan Housing Authority, Richard Oliver, public safety officer, was making his rounds on Thursday to senior citizens residing in the authority’s housing to check on their well-being and pass out free bottles of drinking water to them.
Workers renovating the authority’s Brier Hill Annex are starting extra early this week under portable artificial lighting so they can finish their eight-hour shifts before the hottest hours of the day, said Lester Walker, project manager in YMHA’s development department.
Cement finishers are reporting to work at 2 a.m.; cement mixer trucks are arriving at 3 a.m. to pour concrete; and roofers, carpenters and electricians are starting at 5:30 a.m., he said.
“They’re starting very early so they can have early quits,” Walker said.
Despite temperatures in the mid-90s, there was seemingly no rest for landscapers.
Gary Bueno and Nick Bednar laid down mulch outside Walgreen’s on the corner of U.S. Route 224 and Market Street for more than four hours Thursday afternoon.
“It’s not as bad as it was” Wednesday, Bueno said. “We’ve got a bit of a breeze” on Thursday.
The extreme heat wave is threatening the local blood supply because people who would otherwise come to donate blood are staying away, American Red Cross officials said.
“Heat advisory warnings may be forcing many who are sensitive or vulnerable in these weather conditions to stay indoors,” said Christy Chapman, communications manager for the Northern Ohio Blood Services Region, which includes Columbiana, Mahoning and Trumbull counties.
Chapman noted that blood drive locations are comfort-controlled when it comes to temperature, so donors can beat the heat, enjoy a refreshing drink and feel good about helping to save a life.
She said all blood types are needed. The need for blood is constant, even in cases of extreme weather.
Individuals who are 17 years of age, or 16 with parental permission in some states, meet weight and height requirements which is 110 pounds or more, depending on height, and are in generally good health may be eligible to give blood. Potential donors are asked to bring their Red Cross blood donor card or other form of positive identification when they come to donate. Eligible blood donors are asked to call 1-800-733-2767 or visit redcrossblood.org to find a blood drive and to make an appointment.
Contributors: Staff writers David Skolnick, Karl Henkel, Peter H. Milliken, William Alcorn and Ashley Luthern.