Temperatures set to soar, but animals will be keeping cool
Shropshire is expected to enjoy the hottest day of the year so far on Sunday and families are expected to flock to open air attractions and beauty spots to make the most of the good weather.
The county's tourist venues say they have experienced huge volumes of visitors since Covid restrictions were lifted allowing them to open.
And this weekend's heatwave, which could see the thermometer top 27 degrees, will see that rush to enjoy the outdoors continue.
But the hot weather brings with it extra responsibilities for some of the venues.
At Hoo Farm staff are busy ensuring that everyone will be able to keep cool in the sunshine.
Will Dorrell partner at the popular attraction said they were working hard to make life comfortable for the animals and humans.
"Some of our animals absolutely love this warm weather," he said.
"Our Lemurs and in particular our mere cats just soak up the high temperatures. They will spend ages sunning themselves.
"However the wolves are not so happy. We have a special sprinkler that will go off four or five times a day to provide some cooling 'rain' for them.
"They love it and they play under it but at the same time it is cooling them down. They also have a pond to cool down in."
He said staff also ensure bird baths were kept topped up.
"The hot weather is a challenge but it is an enjoyable challenge."
As for the visitors Will said Hoo Farm made sure that there was always a good supply of ice creams and cold drinks.
"Our visitors much prefer it when the weather's warm and sunny. This is we have had one of the busiest starts to the season even though visitor capacity is reduced. People really do want to go our and enjoy the easing of restrictions."
Weather forecasters say that the dry weather is set to continue into next week.
