Puget Sound weathers hottest day of 2020

It was a scorcher across Puget Sound as temperatures climbed to record highs and crowds looked to beat the heat.

Relief inside was in short supply, with fans and air conditioners flying off the shelves.

Colleen Burbank and her friends rode out this one-day heatwave, bobbing in the water on individual rafts in what amounts to their own little cove underneath the Fremont Bridge.

"It was a little cold at first, but it feels fantastic now," said Burbank, who lives in Ballard. "It's amazing."

Ben Mudgett, a Chinatown-International District resident, said they had planned to be there for a long time.

"Yeah, maybe, probably a few hours," he said, agreeing that will make a lot of people jealous. "You're absolutely right — lots of people walking by."

But they don't have a thing on the city's three drawbridges.

KIRO 7 was there as the Fremont Bridge got one of two cooling showers. Seattle Department of Transportation stated that in this heat, the steel grates can expand and hinder raising the bridge for vessel traffic.

It meant waiting in the heat for those caught unaware, such as Tom Fucoloro, who was asked how he was coping in the heat.

"I'm not," he said, holding an umbrella in his hand. "I'm uncomfortable."

The same can be said, apparently, for his two-and-a-half-year-old daughter.

"The other day it was sunny out, and she goes 'Rain come back,'" he said. "So she's a real Seattle baby."

Until then, all Seattle babies will have to make do with more high-tech ways of staying cool. Fans and portable air conditioners have been in hot demand at McClendon's hardware. It had several while we were there but predicted they'd be out by day's end.

There's no air conditioning at the Interbay P-Patch, just Monica Roland lovingly tending to her garden with a hose. She was doing for her plants what the weather won't — at least not on this hottest of summer days.

Braving the heat, she said, "To keep my plants alive. I'm here to make sure that they thrive during the heat."

And how were they doing? “Pretty darn good,” she declared.

Cox Media Group