Battle to cool down heats up

Scorching days and hot nights have Manawatu¯ people stripping stores of ice cream, electric fans and water balloons as they seek relief from the heat.

Palmerston North’s Mitre 10 Mega was almost completely out of electric fans yesterday afternoon, general manager Bevan Brabyn said. The store had sold more than $10,000 of fans in the past few weeks.

‘‘We’re down to almost the last of the stock. As soon as the heat and humidity went up, we had lots of people coming in for fans, they don’t really care what shape and size.

‘‘People are buying them to help them to sleep – even our team are saying they are struggling to sleep at night. Everyone’s struggling with it.’’

A Cafe Esplanade staff member said lots of customers were opting for iced coffees and iced chocolates rather than the usual hot favourites, while ice creams had been one of their top sellers in recent weeks.

‘‘We’re well stocked, but we’re definitely selling a lot.’’

Splashing in the water and summer go hand in hand, and both the Lido Aquatic Centre and the humble backyard were getting soaked.

‘‘We sell heaps of the Bunch O Balloons. They are for water fights. I’ve had heaps of grandparents getting them,’’ Toyworld staff member Nike Milligan said.

Lots of family groups were descending on the Lido to cool off and work off summer holiday energy, Lido spokesman Lynden Noakes said.

‘‘There’s a good 300 to 400 people at any one time. It’s way busier on the hot days, and we’ve had a lot more people coming through this year than last year because of the fine weather.

‘‘People are enjoying the sun outside, the slides and dive pool have been really popular.’’

Metservice meteorologist Tom Adams said it would likely stay hot Manawatu¯ until later next week.

‘‘It is going to continue. It won’t be quite as bad as it has been because it’ll be a bit cloudier over the next few days.

‘‘But we’ve got the same warm air mass over the country, coming down from the tropics.

‘‘It’s got the warm and muggy feel to it.

‘‘In January you would expect an average maximum of 22.1C for Palmerston North, and overnight you’d expect an average of 13C.

‘‘[Today’s] temperatures will drop down to 24C in the day, but it will still be 17C at night, and Friday it could be back up to 27C maximum, and still 17C degrees at night.’’

The recent rain had boosted the Turitea dam, Palmerston North City Council water asset manager Dora Luo said, but council staff remained cautious about removing water restrictions.

There was likely more dry weather to come later in summer, she said.

‘‘We might have got away with level-one [water restrictions], without going to level three for the summer’’, she said, but this would depend on everyone conserving water where possible.

Level-one restrictions remain in Ashhurst, Bunnythorpe and Longburn, restricting the times and days watering devices can be used.

Level-two restrictions are in place in Linton and Palmerston North, meaning no garden sprinklers or ‘‘unattended irrigation systems’’ can be used, and limiting handheld hose use.