It started out tame enough.
Temperatures at 6 a.m. Tuesday in Santa Rosa hovered in the low 60s, just about normal for this time of year.
But normal was just an illusion.
At that time of the morning, cross country runners were just starting their workout at the Santa Rosa High School track.
With meteorologists warning of record-setting heat Tuesday afternoon, Panthers coach Carrie Joseph called an audible: No afternoon practice.
“I announced we are going at 6 a.m. and that locker rooms were open, I’d have watermelon and chocolate milk,” she said. “Let’s go, it’s probably our best chance.”
Fifty three of her 65 athletes showed up.
It was the best possible call because by the afternoon, record-shattering heat would blanket the North Bay. It was hotter in Santa Rosa than it had ever been, hotter than many locals had ever felt in their lives.
Tracking extraordinary temperatures in #sonomacounty today with @kentphotos. Stay tuned here for updates on what meteorologists are saying could be even higher temps today. @NorthBayNews
By midmorning handyman Mickey Mosiurchak was pouring ice down his tank top.
Looking at the reports Monday night, he knew his shift Tuesday at a home-build site off Crown Hill Drive in Fountaingrove was going to be hot.
“I was like, oh it’s going to be a rough one,” he said.
His girlfriend Kat brought a load of water and Gatorade for Mosiurchak and his workmates.
“I said, babe, we’re super hot,’” he said. “She’s like, ‘OK, I’m making a run.’”
And his site manager gave them frequent breaks. They’d all sit in the trucks with the air-conditioning blowing in their faces. Mosiurchak used a hose on his head.
Domain Builders owner Michael Anglin had already told them at noon they could call it a day.
He’d been monitoring the forecast Monday and told his crew to pack it in early Tuesday.
“We made that call (Monday),” Anglin said. “(Monday) was just too hot. I’m always watching.”
It’s 103 and this building crew in Fountaingrove has been asked to load up early because of the heat. Normally they’d work until at least 3:30 pm. pic.twitter.com/lSG0DfXHZc
Janet Marroguin starts work at 4 a.m.
It’s cool then and sales are brisk. On Tuesday, she sold about 300 chicken or pork tamales at Max’s Tamales stand on Sebastopol Road.
Customers were taking their bags to go for lunch later, she said through a Spanish interpreter.
But as the heat climbed steadily throughout the day, sales slowed.
“They stay away,” she said. “It’s very hot. I’ve sold a couple of tamales, that’s it.”
As she said it, a woman emerged from her air-conditioned car, ordered some tamales and went back to her car. When her order was ready, she again opened the door to the heat, and after a quick exchange with Marroguin, took her tamales to go.
Next door at Gio y Los Magos in the new Mitote Food Court, Cristobol Fructuoso started work prepping food for the truck predawn — well before the temperature really started to climb.
Working the stovetop making birria tacos at the lunch hour, it was significantly hotter in the truck.
“I’ve been drinking a lot,” he said. “It’s bad.”
At the cash register, Tatiana Mejia did her best to stay cool.
“I have a fan, but I think it’s the same,” she said, indicating the fan just blows the hot air around. She’s smiling as she says it, but she’s also sweating.
It’s 12:15 p.m. and the temperature reads 103.
Hailee Chavez, a cashier at Mike’s Truck Garden, works in the covered produce area at the small market and four massive fans usually keep her cool.
But sometimes, she has to step into the cooler.
“It doesn’t get too hot, but if I do, I just kind of walk into the back,” she said.
At 1:30 p.m., as Chavez was thinking about the produce cooler, Anne Vernon was at Mike’s picking up supplies.
She lives in Timber Cove, where no one needs air conditioning. But even there temperatures had reached 83 degrees.
When she got to Santa Rosa for meetings with clients, the heat was breathtaking.
“I was driving and I got out of the car and it was like a wall,” she said. “A wall of heat. It feels almost like a weight.”
Vernon knew the temperatures were soaring just by the sight of more folks flocking to the ocean.
“There are a lot more tourists,” she said. “They are running from the heat.”
And with good reason. It had never been hotter in Santa Rosa. Ever. By 2 p.m. the temperature was 115 degrees, breaking the old record, set in 1913, by 2 degrees.
The record heat was the last thing on Ratana Sim’s mind.
By 2:45 p.m. a wind had picked up, cooling down temperatures, but spiking some level of anxiety among the fire-experienced among us, but Sim wasn’t having any worry. Or care. He was running.
Sim, who works double shifts at McDonalds, said 2 p.m. is essentially his morning.
So, naturally, he was out for a run on his regular loop around Schaefer Elementary School.
“When I start, I’m tired a little bit, but after running I feel strong,” Sim, 50, said.
“One hour after I run, I do pushups, jumping and I kick like this,” he said, demonstrating in the middle of the street. “I like everything strong.”
As Sim ran away, my phone told me the temperature had plummeted to 107 degrees.
I just met Ratan Sim. He works double shifts at McDonalds so this is his morning. He. Was. Running. 107 degrees.
That wind, which was so disconcerting earlier, did a number on the heat.
By a little after 3 p.m. my phone told me it was 100 degrees, but crossing guard Diane Tallent, who shepherds kids through the crosswalks at Fulton and Piner roads twice every weekday, had come prepared.
She had a bottle of water, a bright-green baseball cap, sunscreen and even an ice pack.
“It’s almost melted, and I’ve only been here 10 minutes,” she said. “But I do fine in the heat.”
“And I love my job,” she said.
Still, the heat is nothing to be messed with.
“My daughter made me promise,” Tallent said. “She said, ‘You are not a spring chicken, if you feel faint, please go and get in your car.’”
Crossing guard Diane Tallent came for today’s heat prepared: Water, sunscreen, ice pack and an incredibly upbeat attitude despite the sweltering temps. She’s getting it done at Fulton/Piner. @NorthBayNews pic.twitter.com/upYq7MrHBK
By 3:45 p.m., Johny Ward, a regular at the skate park at Youth Community Park on Fulton Road, said it was practically balmy compared to what he skated in Monday afternoon.
“It’s that breeze that cools it down,” he said. “It’s definitely cooler than (Monday).”
But he’s careful. He’s got a cooler. He takes a lot of breaks. He calls it the two-minutes in, five-minutes in the shade, schedule.
Still, despite the falling temperatures, it was still plenty hot. The temperature on my phone said 96. Ward was undeterred.
“This is when I get off work,” he said. “It’s usually the peak of the heat, but I skate every day.”
Johny Ward of Santa Rosa skates every day, no matter the temperature. Plus, despite record setting temps Tuesday, it “cooled” quickly and was actually not as hot for his skate session Tuesday compared to Monday. pic.twitter.com/WEvdgvqKhY
With news of potential power shut-offs and still more heat ahead this week, most folks had an air of caution about how to proceed.
Joseph, the cross-county coach, for one, is eyeballing her team’s race calendar.
The Panthers are supposed to host a meet Friday at Spring Lake Regional Park.
It’s named after Bob Shor, the legendary — and legendarily tough — race starter and running proponent who died in 2017 at 76.
Predictions show temperatures hitting 95 degrees that day. So, Joseph is considering shortening the distance kids run, or perhaps starting the event later in the day. She’s had to make those kind of adjustments after wildfires and smoke and COVID-19.
But she’s loathe to cancel.
“Bob would not want it canceled,” she said.
So, she, and the rest of us, will watch the forecasts and make the best call she can to navigate yet another unprecedented moment in Sonoma County history.
You can reach Staff Columnist Kerry Benefield at 707-526-8671 or kerry.benefield@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @benefield.
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