HOUSTON - It's been a summer to remember Houston with temperatures topping out at 101 degrees at Bush Intercontinental Airport in July. But on the hot tarmac it's got to feel even hotter and steamier.
United Airlines employs 13,000 ramp employees around the world. IAH is home to 2,234 of them, and every one of them has to find a way to keep cool while they work to get 500 United flights off the ground in Houston every single day. So how do they do it?
At Bush Airport alone, 313 water coolers are refilled at least four times a day. That's 1,252 coolers every 24 hours. It's a lot of water, nearly 6,300 gallons consumed daily by ramp crews. That's enough water to take 368, 20 minute showers.And that's not all. Employees use up more than 100,000 pounds of ice each month, plus thousands of fruits, cooling towels, and freeze pops to make it through each day.
And they've needed every last bit of relief. So far 46 days this summer have been absolute scorchers with temps hotter than 95 degrees. That is about 60 percent of our summer thus far.