INVENTING WAYS TO BEAT CAPE'S HOT WEATHER

Gary Mungle beats the heat with a bowling ball.

He lives with his parents in a house without air conditioning at 811 Elm St. When the temperature soars as it has over the last few days, he goes bowling.

"They keep it nice and cold at the bowling alley," Mungle said. "By the fourth ball, I'm cool."

His mother, Michele Mungle, doesn't go along to the bowling alley. "I either sit in the tub with cold water or under the fan," she said.

His father, also named Gary Mungle, said he waits "until the sun goes down and put a box fan in the window to pull the cool night air in."

The family dog, the elder Gary Mungle said, stays in the basement all the time during heat waves.

The temperature in Cape Girardeau peaked at 98 Sunday afternoon, after reaching a high of 100 Saturday. The U.S. Weather Service predicted the temperature could go as high as 95 today.

The end of July is normally the hottest part of the summer, said Chris Albers, a meteorologist with the U.S. Weather Service in St. Louis. The normal highs are closer to 90 than 100.

The current heat wave should be over by Tuesday, said Ryan Presley, a meteorologist with the U.S. Weather Service in Paducah, Ky. By then a cold front from Canada should pass through the area.

A heat wave like the Midwest is experiencing with highs near 100 degrees and heat indexes of 110 is no rarity. "We don't have this every summer," Presley said. "We have this every couple of summers."

But that doesn't make them any less dangerous. The combination of high heat and humidity makes it harder for the human body to cool itself, Presley said, because the evaporation of perspiration cools the body. High humidity slows the evaporation, so the body has more trouble keeping cool.

Both Cape Girardeau hospitals reported a handful of heat-related illness in their emergency rooms. A nurse at Southeast Missouri Hospital said the staff there Sunday treated "three or four" people for nausea, vomiting, dehydration and other effects of the heat. At St. Francis Medical Center, a nursing supervisor reported one case of "heat exposure" in the emergency room Sunday.

Union Electric had no heat-related problems even though heat waves like this test the capacity of the system, said Doug Groesbeck, district manager for the utility.

Cape Girardeau Fire Capt. Zane Wissmann reported no heat-related problems. He said heat waves often lead to brush fires, but the ground is moist enough that that hasn't been a problem during this heat wave.

Salvation Army Capt. Robert Gauthier reported his group has given out at least 135 fans since mid-June. The demand for fans has not increased in the last week.

Most people in Cape Girardeau live in air-conditioned homes.

Herb Anderson, 535 S. Pacific St., doesn't. "If the electric bill wasn't so high it wouldn't be so bad," he said. "I just can't afford it.

So on weekends he heads out to his camper near Marble Hill, where he said the heat isn't as bad. He was home Sunday afternoon waiting for the sun to go down so he could mow his lawn.

Anderson said the cold water in his water bed cools him at night as he sleeps under a fan. "It's not that bad," he said.