Over the two days the warning was in place, Barry saw temperatures rise to the mid-30s with schools and businesses choosing to close in the hot weather in the interest of the safety and wellbeing of their staff.
With hundreds of locals off work and school and temperatures casting shade on those in LA, Ibiza and Puerto Rico, many would have thought that Whitmore Bay Beach would be full of people – but this isn’t necessarily the case.
We at the Barry and District News ventured down to Barry Island to see just how businesses coped during the heatwave and whether they believe this freak weather event was helpful or a hindrance to their trade.
Staff at Zio’s Gelataria said: “It’s a mixed blessing. Us selling ice cream and cold drinks means that people will buy things off us, but I think people wanted to stay home as there’s not much shade here.
“It was just too hot for some people.”
Elsewhere under the Western Shelter, businesses felt the same largely positive effect. Farnham’s say that the warm weather brought them an uptick in trade, whilst O’Shea’s say that “some days it was hit or miss but we had a couple of really busy days.”
The famous Marco’s Café say that whilst Whitmore Bay Beach was fairly busy, they found themselves “quite quiet.” Staff said: “It was a lot quieter than peak summer, but I think we were quite glad of that. We sold a lot of cold drinks, but the kitchen was fairly quiet.”
While cafes and takeaways directly on the seafront seemed to see some steady trade over the course of the heatwave, the same can’t be said for others.
Staff at Carousel amusements said that “most people were sensible not to come out with the red warning.” They say that a mixture of the humidity and the heat from various machines inside their arcade simply became too much and they chose to close early for a couple of days throughout the warning.
They said: “It was quieter than it should have been for the amount of people around.”
Staff at Enzo’s Bar believe that it was busier than usual, but trade still could have been better. They said: “There’s a difference when you look at today and last week, but it certainly gets to a temperature where it’s too hot.
“The sun shining we always welcome, but it gets to a point where people shift their patterns because of it – usually, we have no customers because it rains, not because of the sun.
“If it was 10 degrees cooler it would have been a lot busier.”
