The City of Kamloops didn’t see a lot of demand after deciding, at almost the last minute, to open up the Sandman Centre as a cooling location this weekend.

The City’s Health and Wellness Supervisor Linda Stride says only around two dozen people took advantage of the facility over the weekend.

“I think we only saw about a dozen people or so come through each day and we typically have seen that in the past; the first time that we activate, we see the numbers are low as we try to get the word out to the citizens that we are open during these very hot days.”

Environment Canada issued a heat warning for the South Thompson region on Friday afternoon, prompting the City to open the cooling centre Saturday from noon until 8 pm.

“We were open all day on Saturday, then Sunday, that big storm rolled in and it really cooled temperatures by quite a bit, so we closed the cooling centre earlier on Sunday afternoon,” said Stride.

The City of Kamloops opens up cooling centers when daytime temperatures hit highs of at least 35 degrees for two consecutive days, with overnight lows not dipping below 18 degrees.