Don’t underestimate Arizona heat during outdoor activities
May 14, 2018, 1:45 PM
(Flickr/Fernando P)
(Flickr/Fernando P)
PHOENIX — Warmer weather means more outdoor activities — and the need for awareness of heat safety.
Keeping safe on hikes, for example, requires precautions. First, according to Banner Health Dr. Robert Porter, “Make sure that people know where you’re going. Another thing is … make sure you carry plenty of water. Usually about a liter an hour.”
A person doesn’t have to carry only water, he said.
“Sports drinks are a good alternate for water at times,” Porter said. “You need a certain amount of water, but sports drinks have some electrolytes in them. (They) can really help replenish some of those electrolytes that you do lose when you’re sweating.”
Porter said many people — especially visitors — underestimate the Arizona heat, or what’s required to be safe in it. Therefore, he said, it’s important that one is “making sure you’re not doing more than you can really tolerate, depending on your age and whether you’re acclimated to the heat here.”
Heat exhaustion can set in quickly if a person is dehydrated, too.
“Initially, you’ll start to feel thirsty … after that, you’ll just feel weak, just not tolerating that heat,” he said. “Then you’ll start to get a little nauseated and then you can get dizzy.”
When that happens, Porter said, it’s important to get to a cool spot immediately.
Porter warned that the symptoms can start after the outdoor activities have ended, too.
“If you get home from hiking, and … you’re feeling some of those symptoms of dehydration,” Porter said, “getting yourself into the air conditioning, even some moist cloth around your neck … can help. Then drinking lots of fluids.”
To date in 2018, the Phoenix Fire Department has received 97 mountain-rescue dispatches. Phoenix Fire Captain Jake Van Hook said not all of them were technical rescues; some simply involved walking a person down a trail.
