MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – How hot was it Friday?
It was “Robert Is Here Fruit Stand ran out of ice” hot.
“We are done making smoothies for the day, can now only make milkshakes,” explained Alejandro Cisneros, who added even for Miami natives, Friday was a scorcher as folks made a run on their legendary fruit drinks to cool off.
Janet, visiting from New York City, with a Robert is Here milkshake in hand, said she couldn’t believe just how warm it was when she flew into town last night, asking if this is normal for this time of year.
“Just arrived yesterday,” she said. “Super super hot and we don’t know if it is normal.”
It turns out, the Local 10 News Weather Authority says we are under one of the earliest heat advisories ever issued in South Florida.
“A heat advisory happens when it is projected to reach a heat index of 105 for two or more hours,” Miami-Dade Fire Rescue spokesperson Erika Benitez said.
A community group that’s most vulnerable on these days: people who work outdoors.
That includes farm workers.
This is the start to the slow season for Miami-Dade’s growers: more than two-thirds of the county’s crops are harvested outside the summer months and the big summertime crop of okra is largely harvested at night.
Nurseries are generally wrapped by Mother’s Day.
For anyone who is working outside, the key is to make sure you are staying hydrated and taking shaded rest breaks.
In April, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation ending Miami-Dade County’s push for an outdoor worker heat standard.
“Public employers, municipalities and counties, can enact their own laws, for their own employees, that is not precluded by the governor, that law just didn’t want every municipality and county to enact their own laws so an employer in Florida had more than 60 laws to comply with,” employment attorney Susan Nortion explained.
Norton said, however, that “there definitely are laws requiring employers to be aware of the potential of heat exhaustion, heat stroke and it is a federal law.”
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s General Duty Clause states, “Employers have a duty to protect workers against heat…workers can file a confidential complaint with OSHA if they believe their working conditions are unsafe or unhealthy.”
“There is a general duty of care under OSHA and that definitely applies to heat standards,” Norton said.
An OSHA spokesperson said “there were 43 worker fatalities from exposure to environmental heat in 2022 and 36 in 2021,” the latest periods for which statistics were available.
OSHA posts data from work-related fatalities on its website.