Hamilton breaks heat record; some students swelter in classrooms
Temperature spiked past previous mark from 1971
HAMILTON
BROKE a heat record as students in 17 of the public board’s 102 schools sweltered through the first two days of school this week — especially on Wednesday.
But city residents and the affected schoolchildren should get relief from a cold front expected Thursday, bringing an end to the hot and humid weather.
The temperature in Hamilton reached a record of 31.4 C as of 3 p.m. Wednesday, according to Dave Phillips, senior climatologist at Environment Canada. The previous record was 30.0 C in 1971.
The break in the heat will no doubt be welcomed at the schools in Hamilton’s public board with no air conditioning.
“It’s definitely tough,” says board chair Todd White.
But the board does take measures and precautions to protect student safety, he said. These include ensuring water is available, keeping the classroom lights down and blinds closed, and moving students from the hotter parts of the school to cooler areas.
Classes are not cancelled and the kids are not sent home, however.
“It’s not a practice we’ve used,” said White. “Our belief is that, while uncomfortable, from a medical point of view, and from a learning point of view, it is better to have students in a classroom learning than sitting at home.
“We’ll take whatever precautions necessary to ensure our learning environments are safe.”
Of the 102 elementary and secondary schools in the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board, half of them have partial air conditioning, and 32 have full air conditioning, White said.
Of the 17 without any AC, some are already slated to close or to be rebuilt, and that will bring the number of schools without air conditioning below 10 within the next six years, he said.
At the Catholic board, meanwhile, all schools have some form of air conditioning, says the board’s health and safety manager, Lisa Sippel.
Of the board’s 55 schools, all have some form of AC. Most of them, 48, have window air conditioners in each classroom (although 20 window units are currently being repaired). That leaves seven schools, all built after 1990, with central air.
St. Jean Brebeuf is the only Catholic high school (there are seven of them) without central air, but all classrooms have window units, Sippel said.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, Hamilton was also under a severe thunderstorm watch — on top of the heat warning already in place.
Relief is expected Thursday, with a high of 25 C and Humidex of only 30 C.
Phillips, of Environment Canada, said the summer has been warmer than normal and certainly warmer than the summer of 2017.
There were only two summer days last year with temperatures above 30 C, while this year, there were 20, he said.
“It’s not been the warmest summer on record, but it has been consistently warm.”
September, at least for the start, however, has already had four days with temperatures above 30 C.
“It’s hard to get above 30 in September, but it’s not rare,” Phillips said.
“I still think there’s a lot of summer left in the air.”