Hottest day of the year

Temperature reaches a scalding 100, but cooldown is forecast for weekend

Melissa Haneline
The Post and Courier

With sweat beading up even during a rest break, Stanley Davis of Camden enjoys a cooling drink of water. Davis and fellow workers were painting concrete barriers during Wednesday's searing, 100-degree heat.

Melissa Haneline
The Post and Courier

Mac Mitchell tried to beat Wednesday's heat by putting a towel under his ball cap. Mitchell, with C.M. Parker Landscaping, was trimming grass along Rivers Avenue.

His head shielded from Wednesday's searing heat by a sweat-soaked towel hanging under his cap, Mac Mitchell plowed through the grassy ditch bank on Rivers Avenue with a weed-whacker during the midday temperatures on the hottest day this year.

"Just drink plenty of water and try to finish the job real fast," said the grass-covered, 57-year-old with C.M. Parker Landscape.

Down the street, David Swift of Goose Creek toiled at a construction site to beat a deadline to bury electrical conduit lines for the new Navy Federal Credit Union.

"Not only is it the hottest day, but it's the hottest day we had to work outside," said Swift, who turned 55 Wednesday. He tried to stay cool with a towel that he had dipped in cold water wrapped around his neck.

The high Wednesday was 100 degrees by 2:24 p.m. at the airport in North Charleston, beating last year's daily record of 99, and the area was under a heat advisory from the National Weather Service.

Today could bring more of the same before a cold front drops southward, triggering thunderstorms late in the day and bringing relief by the weekend, said meteorologist Pete Mohlin of the National Weather Service in Charleston.

AccuWeather.com predicts the cold front will sweep as far south as southern Georgia by Saturday.

"The lower humidity that will reach into the South by Saturday is almost unheard of at this time of year," said AccuWeather.com senior meteorologist John Kocet.

Mohlin said the front could stall out, but it will lower temperatures by the weekend to the upper 80s, considerably more tolerable for this time of year.

Until the heat breaks, Mohlin urged people to stay indoors. For those who have to work outside, he cautioned them to take plenty of breaks, drinks lots of water and find shade if possible.

Stanley Davis did just that. Under a shady oak off Remount Road and Interstate 26, the road worker from Camden squeezed sweat out of his hard-hat liner after turning a bottle of water up to his mouth.

"This is a blessing from God," he said as beads of perspiration covered his bald head and began to stream down his face.

Davis and fellow worker Melvin Smith of Beaufort, both with U.S. Group Inc., took a break from painting concrete barriers that will soon be placed on I-26 for the road-widening project that is expected to start next week between I-526 and Ashley Phosphate Road.

"It's a hot one," said Smith, whose shirt was drenched with sweat. "We just have to take plenty of breaks and drink lots of water."

Reach Warren Wise at 745-5850 or wwise@post andcourier.com.