A busy weather day today. I’m sure you’ve already heard about this story, and since it may be weather related, I feel a need to mention it. It’s a sad day for the Chicago Marathon. Yesterday, a Police Officer from Michigan collapsed in the 18th mile of the 26.2-mile course. It’s not yet clear whether the death was heat related, but when you also read that close to 50 people were taken to hospital, over 200 treated on site for heat related ailments, you have to wonder.

On top of that, 10 000 of the 45,000 registered racers never even showed up. By 10am, temperatures soared to a race record of 88 degrees. There’s reports that some of the runners didn’t have enough water or Gatorade!

Lauren Green, (you know her well as one of our Fox News Anchors) has a friend, Russ Jacobs, who is a seasoned marathon runner. He is going to be running in this year’s New York City Marathon, and said this about yesterday’s marathon:

“Yesterday I started running the Chicago Marathon, but dropped out at about mile 11. The conditions were far from ideal. Temperatures reached 92 degrees, with the heat index above 100. At least one runner died and reports are that hundreds more are still hospitalized. The race ended up being cancelled due to the extreme heat, as well as the lack of medical services, water, and Gatorade.”

I wonder if we will be hearing more stories like this from other runners in the weeks to come?

Temperatures in Chicago this time of year should be about 66, so we are talking about 20 degrees difference, and the big problem was the humidity. Sweating is the body’s natural way of cooling us down. We sweat in order to keep the body at its normal temperature – (of 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit) so if it’s oppressively humid outside, the sweat will not evaporate as quickly as it normally would, and that’s when heatstroke and other heat related illness could set in.

Here’s another piece of high school health class info: The body is two-thirds water! We lose plenty of this water obviously every day through sweating. This is why it is so important to drink approximately 2 liters of water each day in order to replenish the lost fluids – Especially if you’re running a race! You can’t drink enough fluids. Thankfully, officials eventually shut the marathon down when they realized the heat could injure and or possibly kill more people if they didn’t take immediate precautions.

Now, getting back to important info on heat…according to NOAA, heat is the number one weather-related killer. On average, more than 1,500 people in the U.S. die each year from excessive heat. This number is greater than the 30-year mean annual number of deaths due to tornadoes, hurricanes, floods and lightning combined. In the 40-year period from 1936 through 1975, nearly 20,000 people were killed in the United States by the effects of heat and solar radiation.

Chicago is well aware of how dangerous the heat really is. Everyone there remembers the heat wave of 1995, that killed more 700 people. And in August 2003, a record heat wave in Europe claimed an estimated 50,000 lives. Bottom line is when it’s hot outside especially for an extended length of time, people need to really take care of themselves and their family. Without sounding too much like a nagging mom, if you want to read more about being safe during heat waves, I highly recommend visiting the NOAA Web site.

Ok so that’s my two cents on heat and being safe. In fun news, I am going to try and get some behind-the scenes action during some of the daytime shows I do on the channel. I know Greta is so great about getting behind-the scenes stuff on her blog, so I’m going to fire up my digital camera in between commercial breaks and try to give you a little sneak peak! (I have to check with the bosses first, so will let you know how that goes!)

Thanks for reading! And please, leave comments below if you have any suggestions on what want to hear on the Machine’s Blog. I love love love hearing from you!