GILROY
– A wave of blazing heat has set records each of the last two
days and is expected to continue today, according to the National
Weather Service.
Monday’s high was 96 degrees, breaking the previous record of 91
set in 2001, the weather service reported.
GILROY – A wave of blazing heat has set records each of the last two days and is expected to continue today, according to the National Weather Service.
Monday’s high was 96 degrees, breaking the previous record of 91 set in 2001, the weather service reported.
Many people believed it was hotter than that, however. The gigantic “Drive a little, save a lot” sign on U.S. Highway 101 said it was 102 at one point Monday, and numerous Gilroyans in parks around town said they thought the temperature was over 100.
It did hit 102 in King City and 100 in Salinas, but not in Gilroy, the weather service reported.
The temperature reached 93 degrees on Sunday, breaking a record of 91 from 1966. On Saturday it was 88, three degrees shy of another record of 91 set in 1981.
It is expected to hit the mid-90s again today and then drop into the low- to mid-80s on Wednesday, the weather service predicted.
Monday’s heat kept people indoors, for the most part. San Ysidro and Christmas Hill parks were nearly vacant. The few people there clustered themselves into the spots of shade.
Hugo Arriaga, 14, Jose Duarte, 13, and Antoinette Charles, 12, come to San Ysidro Park every day after school to play handball. They came Monday as well, but they quit early.
“It’s too hot to play,” Arriaga said. “When it’s very hot like this, it’s hard to play.”
Heat often drives people to seek out cool treats, but ice cream vendors were not doing much business Monday afternoon at San Ysidro and Christmas Hill parks. Two of them said it was shaping up to be a particularly slow day.
Gabby Rodriguez at San Ysidro said there was too much competition from other vendors. Mona Rivas at Christmas Hill said few people were interested in venturing outside into the heat to walk to her ice cream van.
“When I go to the apartment complexes and play the music, people don’t want to come out because it’s too hot,” Rivas said.
Jacqueline Jauregui, 7, and her father were exceptions. She had told her dad it was too hot to sit in their house and do homework, so he let her do it in Christmas Hill Park. Jauregui said it felt like 152 degrees outside in the sun, but she was looking for a shady spot in which to spread her school papers. First, however, her father bought her a frozen dessert from Rivas.
Not far away, three families were swimming and wading in Uvas Creek, despite the presence of a “No swimming” sign. Ruben Belez, of Gilroy, stood in the water holding his 1-year-old son, Sebastian, and watched his 3-year-old son, Aaron, swim naked. Also in the water were Belez’s wife, Angela Huerta, and at least six other people.
“It’s very hot,” Belez said with a laugh.
Belez said he was aware the “No swimming” sign.
“Yeah; it’s OK,” he said when asked about it. In this kind of heat, he didn’t seem to be worried about police enforcement.
