North Louisiana Heat Advisory Extended Through Tuesday

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If there's one thing we understand in Louisiana is hot summers. It's not unusual for us to experience temperatures well into the 90's early in the summer.  And this summer is no exception.

The National Weather Service in Shreveport has extended their Heat Advisory through 8P Tuesday, July 2nd.

...HEAT ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 8 PM CDT TUESDAY... 
 

* WHAT...Heat index values up to 112. 
 
* WHERE...Portions of southwest Arkansas, north central and 
northwest Louisiana, southeast Oklahoma, and east and northeast 
Texas. 
 
* WHEN...Until 8 PM CDT Tuesday. 
 
* IMPACTS...Hot temperatures and high humidity may cause heat 
illnesses. 

 
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS 

 
Drink plenty of fluids, stay in an air-conditioned room, stay out of 
the sun, and check up on relatives and neighbors. 

Caddo Parish Coronor Dr. Todd Thoma recently told KEEL News there has already been reported heat-related deaths in Shreveport, with more expected.  But there are things that you can do to help prevent becoming a victim of heat-related illness. 

Heat Exaustion vs. Heat Stroke

Dr. Todd Thoma, told KEEL News on Monday, there are differences between Heat Stroke, and Heat Exhaustion, and gave signs to watch out for to prevent becoming a victim to a heat-related illness. 

It's a spectrum of diseases, it can run anywhere from prickly heat, to heat exhaustion, to heat stroke.  Needless to say, heat exhaustion and heat stroke are the really bad ones.  Heat exhaustion is... people feel like they have the flu. They have headaches, body-aches, muscle cramps... they start to get nauseated and fatigued.  That's an early warning sign that you're having a heat related illness.  In situations like that you need to take care of yourself and fix the problem.  You need to be in a cool, well ventilated space with a fan going... you can wet down your clothes or put cool clothes on.  You can get in a cool bath of water. You want to wear light, cotton clothes and make sure ceiling fans or box-fans are on. 

When asked about heat-stroke, Dr. Thoma said: 

Heat stroke is a sudden medical emergency, that's the one that ends up killing people. What happens is, your body can no longer dissipate the heat and the heat rapidly rises up to 106, 107, 108 degrees.  A lot of times, you may not have a lot of warning signs when that is happening.  People have a sudden loss of consciousness, they may have seizures, they pass out... that's a medical emergency and most of the time you're relegated to other people helping you.  You call 911, you cool the body down, put some cool water on them, you get them out of the direct heat while you're waiting on the medical people to arrive.  That's the one that's a dire emergency.  That has to go to the emergency department to get the temperature lowered very quickly or people die.