Granite Staters warm up to early summer weather
May 21—DEBBIE MAILHOT and her mother grabbed outside seats at the Cremeland Drive In in Manchester for lunch Tuesday in the shade of summer-worthy warmth.
"We're beach people," the Hillsborough woman said at the Valley Street eatery. "We love the warm weather."
The thermometer hit 90 degrees in Manchester on Tuesday for the first time since Sept. 7, according to the National Weather Service in Gray, Maine.
Temperatures rose into the upper 80s in many areas by midafternoon and could hit 90 in places on Wednesday.
Manchester's first 90-degree day usually falls around June 2.
"We're a little bit ahead of schedule this year," said meteorologist Jerry Combs.
The forecast calls for temperatures of around 90 degrees for Concord and Manchester on Wednesday and in the 80s into the Memorial Day weekend. North Conway could hit 90 on Wednesday, too.
But be careful of going too deep into the water, where Lake Winnipesaukee and the Atlantic were both a bone-chilling 53 degrees, advised Fish and Game.
"We call this time of year drowning weather," said Capt. Michael Eastman. "The body gets shocked and it causes some hypothermia to set in," he said.
Eastman advised people planning to head for deeper water to take a flotation device. "If you do get into trouble, at least you can be rescued" while holding on to the flotation device, he said.
At Derryfield Park in Manchester, a mother of five was enjoying the sun while her children played.
"This is the first nice day," said Vicki, who didn't want to give her last name.
This spring, the family sometimes went "to the playground when it was drizzly," said Vicki.
The kids didn't mind, she said.
Many Manchester-area residents head for somewhere cool like the beach or a lake during summer days and stop at Cremeland for ice cream in the evening, according to owner Nicole Queena.
"This will be our first real warm spell," she said.
She expects it "will probably be real busy" in the evenings.
She noticed people are adjusting their dining-out habits.
"It feels like people are changing their spending," Queena said.
She noticed some large families were replacing seafood dinners with hamburgers and onion rings, she said.
Weekend trend
Queena said she also has seen a trend of more people waiting to order seafood on the weekends after getting their paychecks, she said.
As Memorial Day weekend approaches, many people will be traveling for the unofficial start of summer. Those looking to escape New Hampshire by air can expect to find fewer overall airline seats out of Manchester-Boston Regional Airport.
"We are currently averaging about 2,000 departure seats per day, which is down slightly from the same time period in 2023," said Christina Lawson, the airport's marketing and public relations specialist.
"However, demand remains very strong," with some planes around 90% full and other "flights operating completely full," she said.
More seats will become available soon with Breeze Airways arriving in Manchester on June 14 and Sun Country Airlines following on Aug. 22.
Using the airport's code, Lawson said: "It's shaping up to be a busy summer travel season at MHT."
