Milk Maid

Beating the record heat

With the Memorial Day holiday now behind us, it marks the “unofficial” start of summer.

The past few days have certainly felt like it. It was a weekend for the record books. I don’t know about you, but I don’t enjoy 80 degrees at 8 in the morning.

It’s crazy to think that we had snow on the ground and dealt with a large blizzard only a few weeks ago.

While watching the weather reports over the weekend, meteorologists were almost giddy as they were talking about all the record highs that were being broken.

According to WCCO, temperatures at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport reached 100 degrees just after 2:15 p.m. Monday.

This is only the second time that a 100-degree temperature has been recorded in the Twin Cities since records have been kept.

The previous high temperature for May 28 was back in 1934, which measured a high of 98 degrees.

The warmest Memorial Day on record was also back in 1934 and it was 98 degrees. This is the earliest the Twin Cities has seen a 100-degree day in recorded history.

Previously, the record was on May 31. It was also the longest recorded consecutive of 90 degrees or more days in May in Minnesota.

In the Minneota area, we bested the metro by hitting 100 on Saturday. Our recorded highs were 93 on Thursday, 99 on Friday, 100 on Saturday, 101 on Sunday and a slightly cooler 97 on Monday.

According the Weather Channel’s website, Minneota’s highest recorded temperature for May was 99 degrees.

On Sunday, the National Weather Service issued a Heat Advisory for much of Minnesota, including Lyon County. When a heat advisory is issued, local offices, such as Sioux Falls or the Twin Cities, often have their own criteria on when to issue one.

They are issued when high values of the heat index are caused by temperatures being significantly above normal and high humidities.

On Sunday, there wasn’t any breeze to help alleviate the heat, which added to the decision to issue an advisory.

During a heat advisory, residents in the advisory area are encouraged to drink plenty of water, stay out of the sun and find relief in air-conditioned conditioned buildings.

Close attention should be paid to children and the elderly during those times and pets and livestock will also need help beating the heat.

On Sunday night, one of my barn fans for my rabbits died so I went into a slight crisis mode finding an extra fan until I could get a new one in the morning.

I was shocked when at the first store I went to, they didn’t have any livestock fans out. They were all still in the back storage area, which is where I found mine.

Making sure all of our animals had plenty of ventilation, like open areas with good air movement and using fans is very important. Providing them with plenty of water is also crucial to helping them beat the heat.

So far, everyone is doing well. My family helped organize and show in a large regional goat show in Marshall over the weekend. Everything went well, despite the heat.

At the end, we were trying to figure out how many cases of water we had used for the show exhibitors and their families.

My brother figured it had to be close to 50 cases of water and that’s not including water for the goats or drinks people personally brought. I’m hoping we don’t have to beat this type of heat all summer!

Brittany Moorse

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The Minneota Mascot
Address: 201 N. Jefferson
Minneota, MN 56264

Phone:(507) 872-6492