Low temps hurt attendance at pools

ST. LOUIS -- Summer is typically hot and steamy in St. Louis. Not this summer, and the cooler-than-usual weather is hurting attendance at many St. Louis area pools and water parks.

Maplewood Family Aquatic Center manager Robert Perks told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch this has been the slowest summer he can remember. Assistant city manager Anthony Traxler said pool attendance is down 7 percent.

The average July temperature in St. Louis has been 3.3 degrees below normal, and many days have been cooler. Consider July 15: In 2013, the high was 91. This year, the high was 74.

"That would be a normal day in the last five days or so of September," National Weather Service meteorologist Jon Carney said.

Perks said things are often so slow this summer that he's had to send lifeguards home and cancel evening water aerobics classes because no one has shown up. He's even closed early some days because the place was empty.

Chilly water has also led to cancellation of a few morning swim classes for children at the Alligator's Creek Aquatic Center in O'Fallon, Missouri, according to city spokesman Tom Drabelle. But overall, attendance is on par with previous years.

Despite the relative chill of this summer, some are still going to the pools. Robin Smith and Denise Cummings had no complaints at the Maplewood Family Aquatic Center, where lines were short and poolside chairs plentiful.

"The cooler weather is not going to keep us away," Smith said Tuesday. "We've only got a couple weeks to go. We come no matter what."

The mild weather has been good for some attractions, though. Attendance at Missouri Botanical Garden is up 43 percent from July 2013, and nearly 150 percent from the scorching summer of 2012.