As the sun continues to beat down day after day, with many lawns turning brown and brittle and many people cranking up the air conditioners with a sigh of relief, Peterborough residents have doubled their use of city water — using roughly 70 million litres per day.

The increased usage, likely due to watering wilting lawns and gardens, is enough to fill the Memorial Centre, from floors to rafters, 1.3 times every day, said Wayne Stiver, Peterborough Utilities vice-president of water utilities services.

Stiver said the message, as always, is to use water wisely especially because it costs the city money to treat it and pump it out.

Although the average daily use is 35 million litres, Stiver said, the utility is “pretty comfortable” with the current use.

“It has been a few years since it has been this dry.”
Geoff Coulson, Environment Canada meteorologist

“When it gets to 100 million litres per day, then we start to sweat a little because that’s the limit of the plant,” Stiver said.

As everyone in Peterborough knows, it has been really hot and dry lately. There’s not much relief in sight.

A heat alert has been issued for Sunday and Monday due to forecasted temperatures that will feel closer to 36 C with the humidex for at least two consecutive days.

People who should take extra care in the heat include infants, the elderly, shut-ins, people with chronic diseases, the morbidly obese and people in marginal housing, according to the Peterborough County-City Health Unit.

Drinking lots of water, even if you don’t feel very thirsty, and keeping shades or drapes drawn in your home or business will help, the health unit says.

Thundershowers are expected Monday, coming in from northern Ontario, although the rainfall will be fairly localized, said Geoff Coulson, Environment Canada meteorologist.

While Peterborough’s rainfall for July is significantly lower than average, it will not set any records, Coulson said.

Normally, Peterborough gets 68.4 millimetres of rain during an average July.

So far, Peterborough has received 7.8 mm with two weeks to go, he said.

The driest July on record was in 1989 when only 6.8 mm fell, he said.

More recently, there was a dry July in 2005 when 16.2 mm fell, Coulson said.

“So it has been a few years since it has been this dry,” Coulson said.

For the past couple of weeks, Buckhorn-area farmer Sam McLean has been hoping for rain.

The owner of McLean Berry Farm, along with the former Caza Berry Farm, says his first round of corn ready for harvest is starting to dry up.

He uses a few ponds on his property to irrigate for strawberries, raspberries and tomatoes but one of those ponds is close to drying up, he said.

“It’s too dry…. For people growing grains and other crops, it’ll be seriously affecting them soon,” McLean said.

Farmers need a steady rain lasting a day or two to get things back to normal, he said. That way, the water stays in the ground instead of running off the surface, he said.

NOTE: Know the signs of heat exhaustion, advises the Peterborough County City Health Unit. They include: heavy sweating, muscle cramps, weakness, headache, fainting, paleness, tiredness, dizziness and nausea.