Heatwave warning

Islanders are being reminded about the potential health risks associated with hot weather as Jersey Met has forecast a heatwave. Temperatures today are forecast to reach 33°C and are expected to be even higher tomorrow afternoon.　

A heat wave is a period of five consecutive days when the daily maximum temperature is 5°C or more, above the average. The average temperature at this time of the year is around 22°C. The last time the Island had temperatures this high, for a six-day period, was in July 2006.

Although many Islanders will welcome the hot weather, the Public Health Department is urging Islanders to keep cool in the heat.

Dr Ivan Muscat, Deputy Medical Officer for Health, said: “With a heatwave forecast by Jersey Met, we would urge Islanders to take simple precautions to protect themselves in the heat.

These precautions are vitally important for older people – those over the age of 75 – as well as babies, young children and those with chronic medical conditions, particularly heart or respiratory problems, who are at higher risk of complications from hot weather.”

To keep cool in the hot weather:

• Shut windows, pull down the shades or keep the curtains closed to keep your rooms as cool as possible. If it’s safe, open them for ventilation when it is cooler
• Avoid overheating: stay out of the sun and don’t go out between 11am and 3pm (the hottest part of the day) if you’re vulnerable to the effects of heat
• Don’t get sunburnt – ever – as that increases your risk of developing malignant melanoma (skin cancer) in future years.
• Have cool baths or showers, and splash yourself with cool water
• Drink cold drinks regularly, such as water and fruit juice. Avoid tea, coffee and alcohol
• Identify the coolest room in the house so you know where to go to keep cool
• Be aware that extreme levels of heat can develop in cars and other confined spaces, and avoid leaving children in cars, even for very short periods. This advice also applies to pets

Hosepipe ban looming

A hosepipe ban could be introduced within weeks if the Island’s drought persists and water levels continue to drop, the chief executive officer of Jersey Water has warned.

Helier Smith urged Islanders to cut their consumption immediately to prevent ‘more formal measures’ being required to curb water usage, as Jersey is gripped by another heatwave this week in a year that has seen a record temperature of 37.9ºC. 

The Island has also entered its second absolute drought of the summer, following less than a millimetre of rainfall in July. Mr Smith said: ‘We’re encouraging people to be restrained and to show they’re doing their bit – by having a dirty car and a brown lawn’.

Reservoir water levels are currently 71% of capacity, he said, adding that this was much lower than usual for this time of year.

Mr Smith said: ‘During the hot weather the demand is much higher than normal, on the hottest days peaking at up to 24 million litres, so we have been using the desalination plant to meet half of that demand, but we fill our reservoirs from streams and they are drying up so the water levels are still dropping.’

The situation was being kept ‘under review’, said Mr Smith. ‘In two to four weeks if this continues we may well have to consider more formal measures to protect our water reserves for the autumn and winter – such as a hosepipe ban and restricting non-essential water use.’

‘For example, a garden sprinkler uses 1,000 litres of water per hour, which is enough to supply a family of four for two days.’

He added that the desalination plant was providing half of the Island’s needs at the moment, mixed with water from reservoirs. But it costs ‘an enormous’ £6,000 per day to operate.

Although some use of the plant as a precaution in summer is built into Jersey Water’s long-term budget, Mr Smith said any extra costs could eventually feed through to the consumer.

He said: ‘The only water we have in Jersey falls from the sky and if it doesn’t rain our reservoirs don’t refill, so that makes the desalination plant very important as an insurance policy, but the cost of the process is enormous.’

‘Most homes in Jersey are now on water meters, with Mr Smith advising people to cut their consumption by shortening their showers to four minutes and by taking the precautions outlined on Jersey Water’s website to ‘save water, money and the planet’.

‘The weather we’re experiencing now is a taster of global warming and of shortages that lie ahead. We hope to avoid any formal restrictions on consumption but it depends on the weather and how much people can cut the demand for water over the next few weeks,’ said Mr Smith.

The Island has six reservoirs, including Val de la Mare, Queen’s Valley and Grands Vaux, with plans for a new reservoir in the long term but nothing definite yet, he said.

Charity Golf Day raises over £27,000 for Macmillan Jersey

The Macmillan Jersey Charity golf day, sponsored by Advisa Wealth, was held at La Moye Golf course last month raising over £27,000 for the local charity.

The weather proved kind to the 27 teams of 4 who took part in one of the biggest fields La Moye has seen in recent years. Perfect conditions meant that the scoring was high.

The event was won by Ben Haymer and his team from Santander who graciously requested to auction off their prizes in order to donate the funds to their friend’s fundraising efforts also for Macmillan Jersey as a result of his brother losing his fight to Cancer last year.

Advisa Director Trevor Griggs said “The Macmillan Charity Golf day was another fantastic success in raising much-needed funds for the charity. It has become an annual event and is the flagship of Advisa’s ‘Supporting the community’ programme.

Macmillan Chief Executive, Steph Gibaut said ‘We feel extremely privileged to have the support of Advisa Wealth, who for the second year running have hosted the Macmillan Jersey Charity golf day “Like many charities, the last 2 years have been financially challenging which has seen our vital fundraising events come to a standstill.

In 2021, our cancer team of dedicated professionals provided over 3,000 support sessions, and without the support of companies like Advisa Wealth, this simply wouldn’t be possible.’

‘Sadly, we know that one in two people will hear the words ‘you have cancer’ so ensuring our services continue to operate is crucial. Receiving over £27,000 from this event is incredible and we truly couldn’t be more grateful.”

She added. I would like to thank the team at La Moye Golf club for staging the event and all the players who participated and contributed such an unbelievable sum of money for the charity.

The Advisa Wealth team is already planning the 2023 Macmillan Jersey Charity Golf day, building on this year’s hugely successful outcome and is asking for any interested participants to contact Trevor Griggs or Paul Frankland at Advisa Wealth.

Hospice draw

The winning number is this year’s Jersey Hospice Million Pound Lottery has been drawn. The draw took place at the Royal Yacht Hotel on Friday evening and the winning number for the £1 million prize was: 7846. A total of £1.3 million in prize money with four other prizes of £100,000, £75,000, £50,000 and £25,000.

The £100,000 prize went to ticket number 7234, the 75,000 winning number is 7888, the £50,000 went to ticket number 7947, while the £25,000 goes to 1545.

Mike Palfreman, chief executive at Jersey Hospice Care, said: ‘We are extremely grateful to Islanders for their continued support and enthusiasm for the Million Pound Lottery. It is fantastic to be able to give away such great prizes to our community while raising vital funds.’

‘Every ticket purchased makes a difference to each person we care for and the £800,000 raised tonight will enable Hospice to continue to provide all of its services, free of charge, to everyone who needs us, irrespective of diagnosis or age.’

There were also five prizes of £10,000 which went to ticket numbers 7830, 6195, 5425, 1137, and 2208.

Mixed Markets

London’s FTSE 100 is up 0.55%. European markets are also higher today with shares in Germany leading the region. The DAX is up 0.60% and France’s CAC 40 is up 0.46%.

On Thursday afternoon. Nasdaq finished in the red, down 0.6%, S&P 500 also fell 0.07%. The Dow Jones saw early gains fade away but ended with a thin gain of 0.1%.

Asian markets finished mixed as of the most recent closing prices. The Nikkei 225 gained 2.62% and the Hang Seng rose 0.46%. The Shanghai Composite lost 0.15%.