NASHUA — All three of the city's public swimming pools opened ahead of schedule Friday afternoon, bringing relief to many after consecutive days of blistering heat and stifling humidity.

Alderman David Deane said because of the hot weather there was pressure to open the pools earlier than usual.

“Normally they haven't had problems like this in the past. I guess I can't blame it on everyone because if we had listened to Al Gore and believed in global warming, we would have known better,” Deane said with a chuckle.

With fewer snow days than expected, students were released from school about a week earlier than normal. But Deane said there were issues relating to the renewal of CPR/first aid and lifeguard certification of pool staff, some of which are required every two years, and others on an annual basis.

“It just so happened that the majority of the staff was in that one-year window instead of a two-year window,” he said.

Mayor Donnalee Lozeau said the pools typically open a week after school ends, and close a week before it begins. “We were fortunate enough to have the pool coordinator cut her vacation short to ensure that we had enough guards to get at least one pool open early.”

Scheduled to open Monday, Park and Rec managed to get all three of the city's pools open for Friday at 1 p.m. And instead of renewing lifeguards' certifications on Saturday, as planned, the work was done on Wednesday.

“I appreciate the staff being as flexible as they can,” Lozeau said, “and they did a lot of work to pull this together quicker and I'm glad they did.”

Lozeau said because of the changing weather patterns, the city will change to having lifeguards' certifications renewed in May.

But the Gate City mayor was not without some irony. “Now that we've jumped a lot of hurdles for the heat wave there's a cold front coming in,” Lozeau said with a laugh.

Nine-year old Ava Rondeau, a fifth grader at New Searles Elementary, was one of the first to swim at the Centennial Pool this summer. She explained why she likes swimming in the heat. “It's nice and hot and it cools you off.”

Rondeau's cousin, Jakob Dane, 6, said he's going to come back as much as possible, “when I go to my memere and pepere's.”

The city maintains the Centennial Pool next to Holman Stadium, the Crown Hill Pool next to Girls Inc. on Burke Street and the Rotary Pool next to the Fairgrounds Elementary School.

For the little ones there's also the Rotary Wading Pool, the Greeley Park Wading Pool and the Splash Pad next to Sandy Pond on National Street.

Pools are open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 12 noon. Swimming lessons take place between 1 and 5 p.m., with general swim from 6 to 8 at night. Adults swim from 5 to 6 p.m.

On Saturdays general swim goes from 1 to 5 p.m., and again from 6 to 8 p.m. Sunday hours are from 1 to 6 p.m.

srios@newstote.com