Thursday's high reached 113 - 5 degrees cooler than a day earlier, but still up from the 110 mark set a year ago. The high in Phoenix reached 116 but for a second day in a row and set a record for the date. Temperatures in Las Vegas reached 116, breaking the old record of 114 for the date, set in 1979. It was warm back East but not this bad. The air conditioning and electric fan business also was booming.
People being people, everyone waits until it's hot as hell and then calls.
Right now we're having a hard time handling our phone calls. We're just swamped. There's already a two-week backlog of orders. Construction workers in Surprise, Ariz., just west of Phoenix, sprayed each other with hoses to keep cool. Some guys, they start dragging, they have to rest, sit in the shade and drink some water.