Weather can help some businesses

Tuesday, June 3, 2003 | 9:56 a.m.

Although it is not officially summer yet, it is so hot in the Las Vegas Valley that Petsmart is selling wading pools, life jackets and doggie water bottles for panting pooches.

There's a refrigerator stocked with bottled water and sodas for Fido's owner, too.

"Most of our customers treat their pets like family," store clerk Tracy Willis said Monday night at the Petsmart on Stephanie Street.

The temperature hit 107 degrees Monday afternoon in Las Vegas, breaking a record for the date set in 1938.

Today's temperature was expected to reach 103 to 105 degrees, forecasters said. An area of high pressure stretching from Utah almost to Hawaii is blocking any hint of clouds or rain, weather radar shows.

Hot summer temperatures can kill a dog in a parked car in moments, Willis said.

Petsmart store owners encourage customers to bring their pets into the stores' air-conditioned comfort rather than leaving them in roasting cars.

Willis also warned that when dogs on walks pull their paws away from the pavement, it's because the hot pavement is burning their feet.

After dark Monday, relentless heat pulsed upward from the stone and concrete sidewalks of Las Vegas shopping centers, instead of pouring from the sun in the sky.

Those lucky enough to own swimming pools were stocking up on supplies to keep water clean and clear.

Brianna Vollmer, who works in a swimming pool supply shop, said chemical sales have skyrocketed in the past week, after another record was set last Wednesday at 109 degrees. Not only did that top the record of 108 degrees set in 2000, it tied the all-time record high for May set in 1951, according to National Weather Records.

Shock, a powerful pool chemical product that kills algae and bacteria, practically flew off the shelves on Monday, Vollmer said.

"We're selling Shock by box fulls," she said.

Theresa Cornell Page, who came to Las Vegas as a child in 1936, said the heat worried her.

"My heart goes out to men and women who have to work outside -- linemen, firefighters, policemen, construction workers," she said.

"But I don't mind being out of the snow," Page said as she headed for the comfort of her air-conditioned car.