With a full week of temperatures in the 90s in Concord, it’s slim pickings in the city for shoppers in need of an air conditioner.
Many retailers have sold out completely, while several big box stores have a few units left in stock.
Managers at Lowe’s, Home Depot and Walmart all said they had some air conditioners on hand, but not many.
Target, Sears, Ocean State Job Lot, Best Buy and Aubuchon Hardware were all sold out of air conditioners Thursaday afternoon.
It’s hard to say when the shelves will be stocked again, as managers at the stores directed further questions to their corporate offices.
The current heat wave is the longest stretch on temperatures in the 90s in Concord in 17 years, according to the National Weather Service.
The high temperatures have also been keeping a business like Laconia Refrigeration busy, which repairs residential and commercial equipment that’s breaking down.
“Two or three days of hot weather around here, it’s not too bad, but five or six, seven days, things can’t keep up, and it just kills compressors and fan motors,” said the business service manager Cliff Grenon.
He said commercial accounts are being addressed first.
“A restaurant can’t survive if they lose their cooler,” he said.
Temperatures are expected to mild out over the next few days and into the weekend, but more hot weather is in the forecast. Energy companies have asked people to be mindful of how much electricity they use as demand for powering air conditioners reaches a peak. Health and safety officials are urging people to drink plenty of water, not to exercise during the hottest part of the days, to stay in an air-conditioned space if possible and to seek a colder location if they start to show signs of heat exhaustion or heat stroke.
“Heat stroke is an emergency … Call 911,” reads a section of the heat advisory sent out by the National Weather Service on Thursday morning.
(Material from the Associated Press was used in this report. Jacob Dawson can be reached at 272-6414 ext. 8325, jdawson@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @jaked156.)