In Whitehorse, residents are seeking the modern comfort of air conditioning along with the usual favourite snacks to deal with the hot temperatures

Art Manhire, the city's Canada Games Centre manager, has already had a couple of groups come in to simply get out of the heat and eat lunch in the air-conditioned recreation centre without using any particular part of the facility.

It's the pool that's the most popular feature of the centre, with five lifeguards now working to oversee the aquatic centre. Normally there would be two on at any one time.

"It's head-to-head in the pool right now," Manhire said.

While there are several lakes around the city those residents could swim in, Manhire said, it doesn't come as a surprise they're heading to the aquatic centre, which is still refreshing but a little warmer than the lakes.

"You have to be brave to go in there," he said of the colder bodies of water.

While city staff continue to go full-tilt at the Canada Games Centre, so to do the staff at Lil's Place on Main Street. Not only does the shop sell ice cream, it also has the coveted air conditioning many Yukoners are seeking in the heat.

"We are busy; we're swamped," owner Lisa - Lil - Jodoin said Thursday afternoon, noting the line-ups for ice cream that have been out the door.

Where a 15- to 20-C day would see the shop go through two or three 11 1/2-litre buckets of ice cream in a day, now it's closer to 50 buckets per week or just over seven in a day.

While the air conditioning has likely made it a little more enjoyable for people to stand in line and wait for their ice cream at Lil's, Baked Café also continues to be "crazy-busy as usual, said" manager Mitsu Ozeki.

Ice cream is also a top seller, though people are getting most things "to go" despite the tables the café provides inside and out on Main Street.

"People don't stick around," she said, noting many seem to make their way toward the Yukon River after getting their order.

In the kitchen, staff are coping by drinking lots of water and baking only in the morning when it is cooler.

At the McDonald's restaurant on Fourth, the situation is much the same, said second assistant manager Sarah Todd.

"There's definitely an increase," she said of the customers coming in, most who order something ice-cream related.

Heather's Haven in Porter Creek is much the same, with customers coming in to cool off, buying many slushies and cold drinks, staff there said.

Beer is also proving to be a top seller at Boston Pizza, along with other cold drinks. Many customers are choosing the cooler atmosphere inside over the deck the restaurant has, said a manager with the Second Avenue restaurant.

It's a very different story at Rogers Video.

"We're pretty dead right now," said acting manager.

While video rentals typically drop off during the summer months, Woodman said the past week has been particularly quiet.

When customers do come in though, surprisingly, they're forgoing the ice cream snacks and cold drinks the store sells and just renting or buying a movie or two.

When people do return home from the restaurants, shops, lakes, city pool and other outings, it seems they are making sure they water their plants and getting plenty of H2O for themselves to deal with the heat.

Where an average July day would see 16,000 to 18,000 cubic metres of water flow through the system, the city saw 21,000 cubic metres flow through from 8 a.m. Wednesday to 8 a.m. Thursday, the city's acting public works manager, Dave Albisser, said Thursday afternoon.

"That's pretty much at full capacity," he said, adding water use typically increases when the temperature heats up.

While the city has not considered any sort of voluntary restriction on water use and there shouldn't be any problems as long as the water use doesn't exceed current levels, officials could look at conservation measures taken if people do start using even more water.

"So far, the system is handling it," Albisser said, encouraging residents to keep their water use to a "reasonable level."