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Ashley Hayes ReportingIt's the hottest day of the year and you could definitely feel it, even if you'd been outside just a few minutes today. Utahns found a variety of ways to keep cool though.
Paige Dallimore/ Trying to stay cool: "We got snowcones and we drink a lot of water."
We've been talking for a few days about the heat. Now we're starting on a string of triple digit temperatures.
With the sun peaking through the clouds, and 102 degrees in Salt Lake, there's no gettting away from it. It's flat hot outside.
So hot even the snowcone maker is bored.
Ryan Carrier/ Snoshack, Sugarhouse: "I think people are staying away. It's pretty hot, pretty slow, actually."
Saturday here usually means big business, about 700 icy treats on average. But today? 200 so far.
But for those who ventured outside, the short line in the sun was worth the wait. Paige Dallimore found it to be the perfect treat for a girls' day in.
Paige Dallimore/ Trying to stay cool: "Me and my mom are going to go shopping."
For some, including the animals at Hogle Zoo, turning down the thermostat isn't an option.
"They're sort of laying around not doing much. They don't want to do much, just like we humans don't want to do much when it's hot."
So some of the animals opt for snowcones, if you will. Spider monkeys slowly savor each icy bite. Others may end up with brain freezes if they don't slow down.
The cold treats are served in three flavors...ice with fruit, vegetables or trout frozen right in.
Stacey Phillips/ Hogle Zoo: "Helps them cool down. Gives them a different way to receive their food and to play with it and try to figure out how to get their food out of the ice block."
A black bear needed even more relief from the heat. After eating his block of ice he took a dip. Zoo workers say the heat is pretty extreme. Black bears are not known for swimming.
Without many alternatives, let's hope the lure of the animal pops doesn't wear off before the mercury drops, or the animals might start feeling like the snowcone man.
Ryan Carrier: "I'm getting pretty sick of them, actually. I get to eat them all day."
Over at Sugarhouse Park, a volleyball tournament attracted close to a hundred teams. Their strategy to staying cool....
Angela Brown/ Volleyball player: "Drink a lot fo water, and there's a creek down there that we all go down to and wade in for a little while between games."
But however you survive the triple digits, you may want to get use to it. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says this first half of 2006 is the hottest the U.S. has been since 1895.
