How hot is it?

Extremely hot. Tarzan hot. Jungle hot.

Heat bits

• The hottest temperature ever recorded in Vicksburg was 106, reached on both Aug. 30 and Aug. 31, 2000.

• The hottest week in Vicksburg was from Aug. 27 to Sept. 2, 2000, with consecutive day temperatures of 100, 101, 103, 106, 106, 104 and 103.

• The record high for Aug. 16 was 101, recorded in 2000. The record low was 56, recorded in 2004.

• Average temperature for Aug. 16 is 81 degrees, with the average high being 92 and the average low 70.

• Historically in August, Vicksburg averages a high of 92 degrees daily until Aug. 21, then drops to 91 and then 90 by the end of the month. The lowest temperature ever recorded in August was 52, on Aug. 14 and 15, 2004.

• The warmest month is July, averaging a high 92 degrees every day of the month.

• The average coolest month is January, with temperatures averaging about 50 degrees. On Jan. 31, 2002 the temperature reached 83, a record for the month.

• The lowest recorded temperature was 2 degrees, on Jan. 11, 1962 and Jan. 21, 1985.

Source: The Vicksburg Post files

People who work, play and train outside in Vicksburg’s August heat all have different ways of describing it — and dealing with it.

“It’s insanely hot,” said Caley Barela, Warren Central High School sophomore and snare drummer in the Big Blue marching band. Caley was one of 160 Big Blue members practicing in the heat this week, getting ready for football season.

During this hot time of the year, band members are required to wear shorts, T-shirts and tennis shoes, and won’t dress in their formal wool uniforms until several weeks into the performing season.

“The kids have been really good about taking care of themselves and staying hydrated all day long,” said band director Alan Arendale. “They listen to what we say.”

Arendale builds in short water breaks every 20 minutes or so, with a longer rest given every hour, and the band boosters bought large tents for shady sitting areas.

“It’s almost unbearable, but it’s worth it,” said Chandler Jackson, a senior who plays the quad drums, which weigh about 35 pounds. “You get to spend time with your friends and at the end of the year you feel like you’ve accomplished something. And it’s a lot of fun sitting in the stands playing at the games.”

How hot is it?

“It feels like it’s about 101,” said Stefon Demby, 17, senior cornerback for the Vicksburg High School football team. “But we work through it. We’re men. We feel like we’re a family of brothers.”

Maybe that was easier for Stefon to say than his teammates, though. He was riding in a trainer’s cart Wednesday afternoon, nursing an ankle injury. And his guess was off by more than 10 degrees. The city’s official thermometer at the Wastewater Treatment Plant on Rifle Range Road about 2 miles away, was 89.

Still, with full pads, helmets and hard physical work, it’s hot.

Senior strong safety Calvin Jones, 18, demonstrated the bear crawl, a sideways maneuver carried out on all fours and repeated back and forth over about five yards of turf. Asked how many times the players have to do that drill, Jones said with the rueful laugh of experience, “as many times as coach wants us to do it.”

The spirit of brotherhood Stefon noted helps everyone train hard even in the heat. “If one’s gotta do it, we all do it,” Stefon said. “We stick together.”

“We just work through it,” said Harold Pickett, senior defensive back.

Coaches tell players they face two opponents: the other team and the heat, said Ben Shelton, a former football Gator and VHS alumni who coaches defensive backs. “The thing we’re working to instill in them is to fight through the heat and drink plenty of water.”

They also make sure the boys keep sweating. Not sweating is a sign of heat stroke, a dangerous condition that can be fatal.

“It’s not just the sun, it’s the humidity, too,” said Shelton. “It’s like playing in soup.”

The first game is of the prep football season is Friday night (Aug. 21), and if history is any guide, it could get even hotter. The record high for the date is 103 degrees, set just four years ago.

How hot is it?

“Not as hot as I remember it being about 15 years ago,” said Johnny Baylot, owner of Baylot Lawn Service who’s tended both residential and commercial grass since 1980.

Fifteen years ago today Vicksburg recorded a high of 92 degrees, right on target for the average August day. The highest temperature ever recorded for this date was in 2000, when the mercury hit 101. The low, 56, was set in 2004.

Baylot’s instructions to his workers are simple: drink a lot of water and don’t get stupid. “If you feel like you’re getting sick, go in,” he said.

With the average job requiring about 20 minutes, Baylot and his three employees do have the opportunity to get out of the heat. They split the trimming and mowing duties, usually able to work quickly and move on to the next job.

The spate of rainy days a couple of weeks ago and unremitting humidity, however, has left everyone’s grass longer, thicker and wetter, Baylot said. One recent 3-acre job required three passes to get the grass cut to his satisfaction.

How hot is it?

John Coccaro, director of the Warren County Extension Service, said local farmers are used to the normal summer heat but part-time, amateur gardeners struggle a lot more.

“Guys need to be careful if they’re working outside for any reason,” Coccaro said. Take a lessons from the farmers, who are known for protective measures such as sunscreen, long-sleeved shirts and hats, he said.

Locally, the heat and above-average rainfall has been good for late-planted soybeans, Coccaro said, and some farmers are already picking corn.

“When they are harvesting, sure, they’re in the cab of the combine with air conditioning, but they still spend quite a bit of time outside, too,” he said.

How hot is it?

“It’s extremely hot,” said Montanique Jackson, 20, wielding a weed trimmer near the Louisiana monument on Confederate Avenue at the Vicksburg National Military Park.

“It’s Tarzan hot,” said VNMP chief operations officer Rick Martin.

“Jungle hot,” said Jackson.

Crews are out in the park each weekday, 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Martin said. “They’re out in hot weather and cold weather because the grass keeps growing no matter what.”

Jackson and other workers wear heavy-cotton, long-sleeved shirts, long pants and boots, which offer protection from the sun as well as snakes, insects and other critters in the hilly, wooded area.

Baylot also favors long-sleeved, button-up cotton shirts and long pants and boots. “For sun protection, yes, but really they keep you cooler, too. You start sweating and they get wet, and it keeps you cool.”

How hot is it?

“It’s hot, but we’re used to it,” said school crossing guard Shirley Malone, directing through-traffic around cars backed up on Grove Street awaiting dismissal at St. Francis Xavier Elementary School.

What the crossing guards don’t get used to is hot-tempered drivers. “What we get is some people driving by who pull an attitude when they have to wait in traffic.” Too often those drivers express their displeasure by hollering obscenities at the crossing guards.

Malone wore the all-black uniform, vest and gloves issued by the Vicksburg police, but said she’ll soon be able to switch to white polo shirts for summertime duty, a request approved by new police Chief Walter Armstrong.

How hot is it?

“It’s very hot,” said vendors working at the Vicksburg Farmer’s Market late Wednesday afternoon. A cool breeze along the Yazoo Diversion Canal was keeping things bearable at the Levee Street lot, and water and slices of watermelon were plentiful for those working behind the tables.

“You get up with the heat and go along with it into the day,” said C.C. Prine, working alongside Letha Bailey at her stall. Prine had been up early picking okra and tomatoes. “Drink a lot of water and eat bananas,” he advised, to replace fluid and potassium lost in sweating.

“It’s been a real humid year,” Prine said, but easier to bear if you let the heat follow you into the day.

Kenny Ellerbe of Bovina’s K-n-K Farms talked with a friend and watched customers and workers sweating nearby in an area drenched in late afternoon sun.

He leaned against a pickup parked in the shade of the old Depot, with the breeze blowing past, and said, “The best advice I ever got from a farmer was, don’t stop until you hit some shade.”

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Contact Pamela Hitchins at phitchins@vicksburgpost.com