KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Another day of intense summer heat Thursday forced the Blue Springs High School band to move part of their practice inside.
“We’re used to rehearsing from about 7 until 3 in the afternoon and that's when the heat has been really bad," said Tim Allshouse, director of bands at Blue Springs High School.
"When it’s warm outside, we’re inside and as that sun goes down, we move outside and put the whole group together.”
Allshouse said the school has a system to determine if it's safe to be outside.
“We use what’s called a wet bulb reading," he said. "It gives us an idea of what the actual temperature is combined with the humidity.”
“It does hit you," said band member Alex Reed. "But whenever you finally start getting down into our drill, whenever we start getting into our fundamentals of what we’re doing, that’s kind of like when a switch in our brains flip."
Just like Reed, band mate Angelo Rojas said extreme weather is not a distraction.
“We try to stay safe. We try to drink as much water, but when we’re out there working really hard, it just kind of goes away," Rojas said.
According to the CDC, prolonged exposure to the heat can lead to serious illness. Heat exhaustion is one example of what prolonged exposure to excessive heat can do.
Symptoms include:
- Muscle cramping
- Fatigue
- Headache
- Nausea or vomiting
- Dizziness or fainting
Band member Kayla Marker said she appreciates the precautions the school takes.
“Just knowing that everyone around here has my back and knowing that I have theirs as well," said Marker.
