Cooling centres not open currently, can open if needed: Nenshi

CALGARY — With the heatwave rolling through Calgary, the city is monitoring the situation but doesn’t expect they will need to open cooling centres this week.

Should things get unbearable for some, they are advised to head to a mall or other public building for temporary relief from the heat.

“A lot of city facilities, including libraries are open and rec centres, go somewhere cool,” said Mayor Naheed Nenshi. “The issue for the cooling centres is really at night, you know when these other areas where you can go aren’t available, so, because the temperatures have still been manageable at night we haven’t seen the need to open 24-hour cooling centres, but we’re monitoring this very carefully.”

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Nenshi added that, if needed, the city will be able to open the cooling centres very quickly.

“Probably just leave some of our rec facilities open 24/7 rather than closing them like normal, that’s the easiest thing to do,” he added.

If things hold up, Calgary is due to break temperature records for the next four days.

The city already broke a record on Monday reaching 33 degrees, breaking the record of 32.8 degrees set back in 1937.