SAN ANTONIO – Douglas Macario said the summer heat is straining his business, Macario Brother’s Lawn Care.
“It’s like way hotter now in June, whereas last year the really hot temperatures came like, toward middle June or July,” Macario said.
For his lawn care company, summer means business, but it also means bearing multiple days with 100-degree temperatures.
He said he usually makes business modifications later in the summer, but he has to switch things up now.
“We started coming in earlier,” Macario said. “We can’t let it stop us.”
Macario said his team starts earlier in the morning, so they can be done cutting before the afternoon. Bonita Landscaping is handling the heat in a similar way.
“Our schedule does change a lot,” Carolina Arroyo, the operations manager, said. “We go out early and come in earlier.”
Arroyo said her company pushes staff to take longer water breaks and time in the shade.
“We go and get what we need,” Arroyo said. “We would never take that away.”
Macario said he even sends his workers home if it gets too hot.
“Right now, we freak out a little bit, but we’ve gotten past seven other summers, so we’ll get past this one too,” Macario said.
Health officials warn that if you don’t need to be in the heat, you shouldn’t.
You can see a list of warning signs and heat safety tips here.