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Lorca prepares for scorching summer with new street awnings
With temperatures inching towards 40ºC, Lorca is extending the sun shades over more city centre streets
Temperatures are tipped to hit the high-30s in Lorca this week during what’s shaping up to be one of the hottest Mays of all time. As forecasters believe this is only just the beginning of a truly sweltering summer, Lorca City Council is getting out ahead of it by installing street awnings to provide some much-needed shade.
Over the last couple of days, council workers have been carefully checking that the 1,500 square metres of canvas that makes up the existing awnings in the city centre is in tip-top condition.
But Lorca is fully committed to its climate change adaptation initiative, now in its seventh year, which aims to reduce so-called heat islands by creating cooler, shaded corridors during the summer months.
So this year, in addition to the sun protection already in place on calles Corredera, Alporchones and adjacent streets, almost 400 square metres of cooling canvas will be erected above Pío XII, which will cover the street from the Casino to Zorrilla.
The budget for the entire project amounts to €104,345 and includes the costs of dismantling the old awnings from last year, installing the anchors and purchasing the wiring and tarps for the expansion area; installing the awnings this year; and dismantling and cleaning them after the summer. This project also includes supplying the necessary tarps to replace those installed in previous years that are in poor condition.
"It's worth noting that the retailers and hoteliers in these areas have told us how satisfying these 'shade oases' are and how well-received they are. Proof of this is that every year they request their installation and even the expansion of the covered areas with the aim of creating new shaded areas," Environment Minister, Santiago Parra, explained.
The sun awnings were first introduced when Lorca joined the LIFE ADAPTATE project and the results have been impressive. One recent local study showed an average reduction in air temperature between the sensors in the sun and in the shade of 5ºC, reaching a reduction of up to 9ºC at some points. Between the sensors that recorded the temperature of the sunlit ground and the ground protected from the sun by the awnings, an average temperature of between 10ºC and 15ºC was obtained, reaching more than 20ºC at some points.
This warming of the ground radiating towards pedestrians, combined with the temperature drop provided by the shade of the awnings, means that the thermal sensation for shoppers and workers is much lower in the protected areas compared to the sunlit areas.
The councilor added that "this drop in temperature and this thermal sensation not only occurs during daylight hours, but also once the sun has set, as the ground is cooler, the sensation of heat is less; benefits that have been confirmed both in the data obtained from the measurements taken and in the surveys conducted during the LIFE ADAPTATE project, and in the comments of pedestrians."
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