ZCZC
BFF-58
HEAT-WAVES-RECORD-GERMAN
Heat waves send record number of Germans to outdoor swimming pools
BERLIN, Aug. 04, 2018 (BSS/XINHUA) — The extremely hot and dry weather
in Germany this summer has sent record high number of residents to seek
refuge in outdoor swimming pools, according to a survey done by the German
Press Agency.
Nearly 740,000 swimmers have so far visited the municipal outdoor pools
in Cologne, only 80,000 short of the record high attendance in 2013. The two
municipal outdoor pools in Duisburg have already set the record this year,
with more than 90,000 swimmers.
In Berlin, by the end of July, 1.31 million guests had already been
counted in 17 swimming pools across the city, the Berliner Bader-Betriebe
(Berlin’s swimming pool operating company) announced this week. The previous
record was 2.07 million swimmers in 2003. A new record attendance is within
reach.
In Frankfurt, as of the beginning of August, around 700,000 tickets to
outdoor swimming pools had been sold, 46 percent more than in the same period
of the previous year. The employees of the open-air swimming pools worked
overtime to cope with the onslaught.
Hamburg’s outdoor pools are also heavily visited. Since May, around
190,000 visitors have come to the bathing areas of the Baderland, and 110,000
of them paid visits in July alone. “Compared to the past five years, these
numbers are very pleasing,” a spokesman for Baderland GmbH was quoted as
saying.
According to the German Weather Services (DWD), Germany experienced the
fourth-warmest July to date, and besides, an unusually long period of above-
average temperatures until the end of July, which turned into an extreme heat
wave, combined with a pronounced drought.
BSS/XINHUA/IJ/1735 hrs