It was another hot one in Pittsburgh today with temperatures peaking above 90 degrees. The City of Pittsburgh opened up cooling centers and about two thirds of the city schools closed today because of the heat.
Across the city, residents like Nathan Baker were finding ways to stay cool. Baker bought $3 tickets to watch the Pirates play in the heat but was resting in the shade by the river beforehand. He brought a satchel rather than a backpack, which he thought would be too hot.
If he was at home in Greenfield, he says, he’d find other ways to cool off.
“We've just become experts at making our house for keeping everything closed during the day, opening up strategically the windows that will be facing east when the sun is at a certain point in the day and airing it out early in the morning.”
Baker, like many of the residents who spoke to WESA, said he was concerned about climate change bringing more hot days like today.
Carly Mitri, visiting from Wisconsin, kept her two-month-old cool along the river around Point State Park with a swaddle blanket for shade and then headed back to the air conditioning in her hotel before it got too hot. She was with her husband on a business trip — not to watch the Pirates play the Milwaukee Brewers.
Zachary Wasco was out pulling rose bushes for a landscaping company downtown. He said he would move to Canada if the weather became too hot in Pittsburgh. “Climate change is definitely a thing,” he said. “I mean, we haven't had very cold winters lately, so not much snow. It just keeps getting warmer and warmer.”
Susan Levy, of North Carolina, was setting out to ride the Great Allegheny Passage trail this morning. She left later in the day than she intended but said she uses cold towels when it gets too hot out.
David Wright Jr. said he stays cool with free water from Starbucks while he plays chess in Market Square.
Monica Mudric brought her son Mossimo to play in the shade at Point State Park with her husband Huxley Mudric.
Justin Harrison waited for a bus to get to his job at a warehouse where he said it would be warm inside. He keeps a napkin in his pocket on hot days to wipe away the sweat.
