Recent unseasonably warm temperatures have been keeping folks in the swim -- literally -- and that's fine with Caribbean Pool's Bill Rochford.

"September was a really good month for us," Rochford, retail operations manager and vice president for the Schererville company, said, adding homeowners normally shut their pools by late September.

Not this year, as temperatures, which have been above normal this fall, reached around 90 degrees in some parts of the region Monday, although they are expected to drop considerably by today and remain that way the remainder of the week.

Todd Botma, vice president of Lansing Heating and Air Conditioning Inc. in Lansing, said the temperatures could make this week notable.

"Some people could be using their air-conditioning and their heat in the same week," Botma said, adding it's possible there will not be the no-air, no-heat transition time his industry normally experiences.

Joe Yothment at Meyer's Heating and Cooling in Griffith echoed Botma's sentiments.

"Usually, you have your air-conditioning put to bed by now. We still have a lot of air-conditioning service calls. It's almost unprecedented for this time of year."

Yothment said about half of the service calls a week into October were for air-conditioning, the other half for furnace checks and boiler start-ups.

Meanwhile, Rochford said his company doesn't mind adding a couple of weeks to its busy season.

"We do weekly pool maintenance, so the season for that has been extended," he said.

At the same time, it's possible that warmer temperatures have kept region residents' thoughts focused on keeping cool in the pool, thus encouraging pool sales.

"We install 120 pools a year. Recently, there was a nice jump in pool sales," Rochford said.

That was true for the folks at St. John Pool in St. John, as well.

"We're installing new pools now because the insurance companies, after a month, have finally said OK," owner Marilyn Monos, said, adding the family business has been swamped since last month's storms.

"It's due to the weather, but not just the heat," she said, noting that trees fell on pools, liners were torn and other damage done, necessitating repairs or replacement.

The warmer temperatures also have people buying pools to get a jump on spring.

"They see that they could be enjoying a pool for a longer time, so they've been coming in, putting pools on layaway," Monos said. "We've barely started closing pools."

She's not complaining, though.

"We've been fortunate. The weather has extended our season by a full month."

BREAKOUTS

Although some people are calling the recent unseasonably warm weather an Indian Summer, a phenomenon dating back to the 1800s, others would agree it doesn't quite fit the definition.

Ideas on what constitutes an Indian Summer vary, but the most widely accepted means of determining whether an Indian Summer is, indeed, occurring is that the weather must remain above 70 degrees Fahrenheit for seven days after the autumnal equinox.

Usually, it occurs after the first frost, which has not yet happened. Indian Summer can be in late October or early November in the northern hemisphere.

Source: Wikipedia.com