As temperatures climb in Kern County, doctors are urging residents not to let familiarity with summer heat lead to complacency, especially as a recent spike has caught some people off guard.<\/p>\n
Dr. Puja Vithalani of Kern County Kaiser Permanente said people should watch for signs of heat exhaustion, including \u201cincreased thirst,\u201d headaches, blurred vision, fatigue and sleepiness. \u201cAll of these are signs that your hydration is not adequate at that moment,\u201d Vithalani said.<\/p>\n
Vithalani said this summer had been relatively cool compared to other summers in Kern County, but she has seen an uptick in heat-related cases at her clinic. She said the increase includes care for the elderly, infants and pregnant women.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery year is different for us, but it is a hot city. I know that we may think that we\u2019re used to it but remember to take as many precautions as you can. And just stay safe from the heat,\u201d Vithalani said.<\/p>\n
Local farmers are also adjusting to the higher temperatures, including changes to work schedules in the fields.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe grape growers, I\u2019ll use them as an example, they\u2019re the ones that have the manual labor in the field, picking and harvesting. They\u2019re starting earlier and as soon as they hit 100 degrees they end their day,\u201d said Todd Snider, president of the Kern County Farm Bureau.<\/p>\n
If temperatures reach 105 degrees and above, more challenges can follow, including the need for more irrigation and added stress on crops, Snider said. Still, he said farmers remain optimistic.<\/p>\n
\u201cFarmers are well known for being positive, finding the best case scenario. Always thinking and planning accordingly. They are ever the optimist. No matter what happens to them they\u2019re going to be like Ok we can figure this out. Let’s plan around it and let\u2019s get it done,\u201d Snider said.<\/p>\n
Eyewitness News meteorologist Ilya Neyman said the heat is expected to linger. \u201cWe are expecting this heat once it gets going to stick around at least up until the end of the week, maybe longer,\u201d Neyman said, adding that forecast confidence decreases further out.<\/p>\n
Vithalani recommended drinking six to 10 cups of water each day, and more if you\u2019re active.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As temperatures climb in Kern County, doctors are urging residents not to let familiarity with summer heat lead…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":398747,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152],"class_list":["post-398746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=398746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398746\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}