That's where you could find Rebecca Armentrout, Ellie Gross and Aila Baxter, along with hundreds of others trying to beat the heat.
Gross said she loves swimming and likes to get treats at the pool and being with friends. What part do you like the most? "All of it," she said. The summer's first heat wave, and really the first time in years that temperatures have soared this high, is upon us. High temperatures have neared 100 degrees, only two weeks after forecasters were calling early June one of the coolest on record. Shelby County and the rest of Iowa and eastern Nebraska were under heat advisories much of this week.
And along with the heat comes summer thunderstorms, the likes of which rolled through Shelby County Tuesday afternoon. The storms brought with them 78 mile per hour winds that brought down trees, and heavy rain more than one inch in an hour's time.
Although the storm was rough, there was little overall damage in Shelby County, officials said, other than uprooted trees and downed branches.
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Experts have cautioned that with temperatures still expected in the 90s throughout the weekend and into next week, residents should be smart, cool and hydrated.
According to the National Weather Service, heat kills by taxing the human body beyond its abilities. In a normal year, about 175 people succumb to the demands of summer heat. In an atypical year, that number can be higher.
The NWS has stepped up its efforts to alert residents of the hazards of heat waves -- prolonged excessive heat/humidity episodes.
Human bodies dissipate heat by varying the rate and depth of blood circulation, by losing water through the skin and sweat glands, and - as the last extremity is reached - by panting, when blood is heated above 98.6 degrees. The heart begins to pump more blood, blood vessels dilate to accommodate the increased flow, and the bundles of tiny capillaries threading through the upper layers of skin are put into operation. The body's blood is circulated closer to the skin's surface, and excess heat drains off into the cooler atmosphere. At the same time, water diffuses through the skin as perspiration. The skin handles about 90 percent of the body's heat dissipating function.
Sweating, by itself, does nothing to cool the body, unless the water is removed by evaporation - and high relative humidity retards evaporation. The evaporation process itself works this way: the heat energy required to evaporate the sweat is extracted from the body, thereby cooling it. Under conditions of high temperature (above 90 degrees) and high relative humidity, the body is doing everything it can to maintain 98.6 degrees inside. The heart is pumping a torrent of blood through dilated circulatory vessels; the sweat glands are pouring liquid-including essential dissolved chemicals, like sodium and chloride onto the surface of the skin.
Heat disorders generally have to do with a reduction or collapse of the body's ability to shed heat by circulatory changes and sweating, or a chemical (salt) imbalance caused by too much sweating. When heat gain exceeds the level the body can remove, or when the body cannot compensate for fluids and salt lost through perspiration, the temperature of the body's inner cone begins to rise and heat-related illness may develop.
Ranging in severity, heat disorders share one common feature: the individual has overexposed or overexercised for his age and physical condition in the existing thermal environment.
Sunburn, with its ultraviolet radiation burns, can significantly retard the skin's ability to shed excess heat.
Nickie Chamberlain, pool manager, said the pool is a good place to be in such extreme heat, and to cool off. The heat this week has made up for a slow swimming season thus far. On Monday and Tuesday it was estimated that 300 swimmers headed to the aquatic center to beat the heat.
