The recent bout of record breaking temperatures plaguing the western United States has forced South County residents to seek refuge from the energy-zapping heat, lulled commerce and damaged local strawberry crops.
The National Weather Service has called the string of scorchers an “unusually long and dangerous heat wave” expected to simmer down a little next week.
In the meantime, weather services, state and county health agencies and power companies alike have issued severe heat warnings and have cautioned children, the elderly and those with health conditions to take shelter in air conditioned buildings. Around 4 p.m. Tuesday, every listed landline in South County rang with an automated voice message from the county doctor, who warned people to be careful in the heat.
Temperatures peaked in South County last weekend, soaring above 103 degrees in the afternoons. Since then, it’s lingered in the upper 90s. Sunday, June 30 broke the record for the hottest June 30 ever when the thermometer read 100 degrees in the shade.
Local business owners think the torrid climate is making people sluggish.
“When you get temperatures over 100, people get lazy. We all do,” said Al Howard, owner of EZ Clean Car Wash on Monterey Street, who said business has been slow throughout the most extreme hot days recently.
Howard said while people love to visit a self-serve car wash such as EZ Clean in the summer months – customers often sneak in a spray or two of themselves as they wash their car – business dies down during the most extreme heat waves.
“As soon as the weather starts warming up, so does business. It picks up really good when it’s 80 to 98 degrees. But when it reaches 100, people just give up everything,” he said.
Ice-cold beer apparently isn’t even enough to lure people out of their air-conditioned homes, according to Daniel Johnson, manager of the Gilroy BevMo on Camino Arroyo.
Beer sales are proven to be highest in the months of June, July and August, according to data from the Beer Institute, a Washington DC-based brewski think tank. Despite this, Johnson said the triple-digit heat wave has hindered business.
“Everyone wants to hide in their homes. Saturday afternoon was miserably slow,” Johnson said. “They’re all afraid to go out and get scorched.”
On the hot days that aren’t “insanely hot,” Johnson said the store is bustling with people buying summer ales, fruity white wines and chilled crisp ciders. The most popular seasonal beer is Anderson Valley’s Summer Solstice, a creamy ale which Johnson has been selling by the case all summer.
Perhaps the business sector in South County that got burned the worst are the local farmers.
Pete Aiello, owner of Uesugi Farms in Morgan Hill, thinks he may have lost most of his 23-acre strawberry crops worth an estimated $141,000.
“The fruit has been damaged extensively with sun scald and dehydration. We’re picking still but we’re throwing most of it in the ditch,” Aiello said.
It’s risky to plant berries as far inland as Morgan Hill and Gilroy according to Aiello, who said strawberries in coastal agriculture towns like Watsonville aren’t damaged to the same level as his were, thanks to cool ocean breezes and more moderate temperatures. Aiello said there’s still a chance his strawberry crops can be salvaged, but he’s not banking on it.
“I’m probably just being a pessimistic farmer, but this might have driven the nail into the coffin,” he said.
Aiello is just grateful that his pepper plants are doing fine.
“Peppers thrive on high heat. We’ve got nice, beautiful plants that have shade canopy. As long as we keep the water going, they’ll be great,” Aiello said.
He added that local corn and pumpkin crops are OK, too.
Meanwhile, Aiello is trying to keep his pickers safe from the extreme sun.
“It’s all about water and shade and regular breaks,” he said. “We really have to be on that.”
Since 2005, California farmers have been required to provide outdoor workers with drinking water, training on heat illness prevention, and shade when temperatures reach 85 degrees.
One business that continues to thrive through the heat wave are air conditioner installation and repair companies, according to several local repairmen who have been running around trying to fit appointments in.
“We’re the busiest we’ve ever been since opening in 2009,” said Andrew Salinas, owner of ARS Comfort Solutions, who said he’s been getting four times the amount of calls recently than he would on a typical summer week.
“We’re booked out for quite awhile. People wait to get their air conditioning fixed until all of a sudden when it’s really hot. We were prepared for the heat wave, but not expecting nearly this much,” Salinas said.
All that demand for air conditioning is starting to strain the state’s power reserves, said Steve Greenlee, spokesman for the California Independent System Operator, the company that manages 80 percent of California’s power grid.
Cal ISO issued a “Flex Alert” on Monday and Tuesday urging consumers to cut back on power usage. The heat wave prompted the second Flex Alert of the year; the organization initiated just two in 2012.
A Flex Alert is the first step Cal ISO takes to avoid rolling blackouts.
“The heat is a big driver in this. You can’t blame people for wanting to stay cool,” Greenlee said.
Over at Fifth Street Coffee in downtown Gilroy, locals have been streaming in for cold drinks and ice cream, said owner Yolanda Castaneda. Some sit for hours afterward in the cool air of the store.
“Customers have been lingering almost all day,” Castaneda said.
Predictions for the rest of the summer are hot, but not exceptionally hot. Suzanne Sims, meteorologist for The National Weather Service, said the scorching weather will drop to average July temperatures in the next week or so.
“This was really a prolonged heat wave. It was a really strong ridge of high pressure, and it will take awhile to break it down,” Sims said.
