WEATHER ALERT: Heat, wind & waves in the forecast

On Thursday, the National Weather Service issued an Excessive Heat Watch for Santa Barbara County and surrounding areas.

The Excessive Heat Watch begins at 10 a.m. Friday, July 6 and lasts through Saturday, July 7, 2018, at 9 p.m.

The Santa Barbara County Public Health Department urges the community to stay safe and take the necessary precautions to avoid heat-related illnesses, including heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Here are some tips from health officials to help you achieve that:

Take care of those who might not be aware of the danger or be able to react accordingly -especially the elderly, young children, and pets. Wear appropriate clothing. Lightweight, light-colored, loose-fitting clothing works best. Drink plenty of cool, non-alcoholic beverages, especially those without sugar or caffeine. Don’t wait until you’re thirsty to drink. If you have fluid restrictions from your doctor, ask to see how much you should drink while the weather is hot. Limit outdoor activity. Try to schedule outdoor activities during the cooler parts of the day, like morning and evening hours. Be sure to wear sunscreen and rest often. Take regular breaks in the shade or in an air-conditioned room. If your home doesn’t have air conditioning, go to a public space that is air conditioned – even a few hours in air conditioning can help your body stay cooler. You can also take a cool shower or bath. Know the signs of heat exhaustion. If someone becomes dizzy, nauseated, or sweats heavily, find a cooler location for him or her immediately. Know the signs of heat stroke. Heat stroke is much more serious than heat exhaustion. The symptoms are similar to heat exhaustion, but also include hot, flushed skin. With heat stroke, the person often stops sweating and the skin will be unusually dry. If heat stroke is a possibility, call 911 immediately. Heat stroke is life threatening! Be aware of the dangers of leaving children (and pets) unattended in vehicles. It only takes a matter of minutes on a relatively mild day for a vehicle to reach deadly temperatures, a fact that is exacerbated the hotter it is.

{“url”:”https://twitter.com/KEYTNC3Kelsey/status/1014940970129948672″,”author_name”:”Kelsey Gerckens KEYT”,”author_url”:”https://twitter.com/KEYTNC3Kelsey”,”html”:”&#lt;blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”&#gt;&#lt;p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”&#gt;HEAT WAVE! It is about to get hot. We will be seeing temperatures in the 90s along the coast and triple digits in the valleys & mountains. An Excessive Heat Warning is in effect 10AM Friday through 9PM Saturday! &#lt;a href=”https://t.co/stCRdghXbd”&#gt;pic.twitter.com/stCRdghXbd&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/p&#gt;– Kelsey Gerckens KEYT (@KEYTNC3Kelsey) &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/KEYTNC3Kelsey/status/1014940970129948672?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;July 5, 2018&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/blockquote&#gt;n&#lt;script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″&#gt;&#lt;/script&#gt;n”,”width”:550,”height”:null,”type”:”rich”,”cache_age”:”3153600000″,”provider_name”:”Twitter”,”provider_url”:”https://twitter.com”,”version”:”1.0″}