BERLIN, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- The extremely hot and dry weather in Germany this summer has sent record high number of residents to seek refuge in outdoor swimming pools, according to a survey done by the German Press Agency.
Nearly 740,000 swimmers have so far visited the municipal outdoor pools in Cologne, only 80,000 short of the record high attendance in 2013. The two municipal outdoor pools in Duisburg have already set the record this year, with more than 90,000 swimmers.
In Berlin, by the end of July, 1.31 million guests had already been counted in 17 swimming pools across the city, the Berliner Bader-Betriebe (Berlin's swimming pool operating company) announced this week. The previous record was 2.07 million swimmers in 2003. A new record attendance is within reach.
In Frankfurt, as of the beginning of August, around 700,000 tickets to outdoor swimming pools had been sold, 46 percent more than in the same period of the previous year. The employees of the open-air swimming pools worked overtime to cope with the onslaught.
Hamburg's outdoor pools are also heavily visited. Since May, around 190,000 visitors have come to the bathing areas of the Baderland, and 110,000 of them paid visits in July alone. "Compared to the past five years, these numbers are very pleasing," a spokesman for Baderland GmbH was quoted as saying.
According to the German Weather Services (DWD), Germany experienced the fourth-warmest July to date, and besides, an unusually long period of above-average temperatures until the end of July, which turned into an extreme heat wave, combined with a pronounced drought.
