Summertime and sweat are pretty much synonymous here in central Mississippi, and with highs pushing 100 degrees and enough humidity in the air to make any ounce of heat feel that much hotter, those in professions that require outdoor work are feeling the effects.

“You can’t get away from the heat because it’s an outdoor job,” said city landscape architect Jeff Richardson of his and his team’s work designing and maintaining Vicksburg’s streets, medians, play grounds and public spaces. “There are some things you can’t get around. Life still goes on regardless of the weather.”

But that doesn’t mean the landscaping department and city utility crews don’t try to minimize its effects.

“A lot of it has to do with pacing yourself,” Richardson said, noting 94 degrees and above is when he and his team truly start worry about the effects of the heat. “The difference between 90 and 92 is hot, but the difference between 93, 94 and particularly 95 degrees, it changes. There’s a noticeable difference. With the humidity, it’s worse. It depends on the relative humidity and the temperature, if it’s 95 and 60 percent humidity, it’s going to feel a whole lot hotter than with 20 percent humidity. We don’t generally have that here though, but every summer is different.”

Staying hydrated, finding shade and pacing themselves are the keys Richardson said his team uses to make it through their summer, though he also noted their 6:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. work schedules also help them avoid the hottest part of the day.

In addition to the coolers on each truck, Richardson said most bring their own water bottles that they freeze, wear hats and loose clothing and stay in the shade as much as possible.

“This time of year it’s mainly maintenance work. The roadways get really really hot, so we try not to do any projects in the summer, and (in the summer), they try to get most of the hard work done by 10 o’clock,” he said. “Then they go to something like pruning trees, where generally you’re in the shade.

“A lot of it is working at a doable pace. The supervisors know to watch and don’t push. In landscaping its more of a scheduling thing, in utilities it’s more of fixing emergencies. If something breaks, they’ve got to go fix it, so they’re in a different (area). They have to pace themselves because they have to fix the water leak.”

City sewer and water department employees working on a Cherry Street building’s sewer and water connections agreed avoiding the summertime heat is more difficult when working on pipes under the road.

“Did it stop working? It may just be hot,” foreman Patrick Thomas said when the power source for the sewer department’s jackhammer suddenly stopped working.

Thomas estimated his team goes through two coolers of water a day in addition to the bottles each man brings for himself. He and his team huddled in the shade of a building Thursday and rehydrated while they waited for their equipment to cool.

“We’re trying to be the heat,” Kamal Wesley, an employee of the sewer department, said. “It’ll be all right. Somebody’s got to do it.”