Heat cripples Valley
2007-02-01
Lise Beyers
THE Drakenstein Valley has been left all but crippled by the past week’s scorching hot weather, and all this before the arrival of the hottest month of February.
On Thursday the heat-wave reached its climax after five days with a temperature of 44 degrees in Paarl and reports of the mercury rising as high as 46°C in the area. In central Paarl a shopkeeper reported measuring 43,9 degrees.
Despite the heat, many schools continued with their daily sports activities, resulting in at least one learner’s feet being badly burnt during an athletics meeting, and another fainting of heat exhaustion.
Many parents were concerned that school activities continued as normal, arguing that children should have been sent home.
But businesses selling cooling appliances were laughing all the way to the bank, with air-conditioners and fans leaving shops as fast as they were delivered.
One dealer said that these appliances have been selling so fast that there was now a country-wide shortage.
A refrigeration technician said that his business had boomed because cooling systems over-heated and malfunctioned in the searing temperatures.
“I have even had to attend to problems at various mortuaries in the Boland over the past few days, because their refrigeration systems were failing.
“Once the outside temperature exceeds 40°C, cooling equipment starts shutting down and for any business that uses refrigeration on a large scale, it is a nightmare.”
He also blamed consumers for not regularly maintaining their equipment throughout the year.
“I have a backlog of two weeks, and can currently only make exceptions for businesses who entirely rely on their refrigeration.”
The local poultry industry has also taken a knock with thousands of chickens having died of heat exhaustion last week.
A local farmer said that the ideal temperature for chickens to thrive on is 23°C and even though most farmers have cooling facilities, they suffered in the heatwave of last week.
Another problem is that diseases such as Newcastle disease takes advantage of the hot weather, but farmers are carefully monitoring the situation.
Although most wine farmers are expecting a bumper year for their product, farmers producing Sauvignon Blanc grapes are concerned.
The bouquet of this cultivar is extremely sensitive to high temperatures and this can lead to the spoiling of the wine.
Continued heat leads to rising sugar levels and this causes higher alcohol levels in wine grapes, which is unfavourable, especially for the export market.
Other problems which are being experienced by wine farmers is that due to the blocks of grapes ripening at the same time, it has been extremely hard to find labour to assist with the harvesting.
According to one farmer, everyone is looking for labourers simultaneously and farms cannot keep up with the harvesting.
Continued heat is also sure to cause sunburn damage to fruit, especially prunes, apples and citrus.
With the start of February, usually the hottest month in the Drakenstein, the inhabitants of this area will have to brace themselves for more heat.
According to the weather bureau, today will be a temperate 30 degrees due to some cloud cover, but the mercury is set to hit rise again by Monday after hovering between 33 and 34 degrees over the
weekend.
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