Beating the heat the day before summer starts | News

GRAND RAPIDS (WZZM) - Summer officially starts Wednesday, but there have already been several days this spring when the temperature has topped 90 degrees.

So, how did West Michigan choose to beat the heat today?

Since there is no air conditioning in the Grand Rapids Montessori School, the faculty decided to take about 100 students to Richmond Park to try to stay cool.

"The last couple days have been hot," said Jessi Duncan, who was with her kids at Richmond Park. "We packed the sunscreen and we'll try to stay in the shade as much as possible."

Thankfully for the Montessori group, they had options - the shade or the sun.

The playground area is in the sun, meaning surface temperatures of the equipment was often too hot to touch Tuesday.

To prove it, WZZM brought an infrared thermometer to record some accurate readings of how hot things got.

The black seat on the swing set was 143 degrees.

The metal park bench was 129 degrees.

The plastic surface at the base of the slide came back with a temperature reading of 120 degrees.

We then decided to record a temperature reading in the shade, so we used the infrared thermometer on some concrete.

It was 88 degrees, which is much cooler than the playground equipment in the sun, but still warm.

As the Montessori students played, a Grand Rapids Fire Department vehicle drove up and allowed all the kids to cool off by running under the fire hose for about a half hour.

"If you can get a little wet, find a pond or a puddle [on days like these], jump in it," said Chad Morton, who was one of the volunteers running the Montessori group day.