Much of the northern hemisphere has been experiencing an...

Much of the northern hemisphere has been experiencing an especially hot and dry summer this year, with the oppressive weather conditions contributing to the recent devastating fires in Greece and Sweden.

The map below, taken from a British news report earlier this week, highlights the extent of the northern hemisphere heatwave over the first three weeks of July:



The 'hot spots' over this period seem to have been along both the west and east coast of North America, with the belt of heat extending well into Canada on both coasts; in Europe, with northern and north-west Europe bearing the brunt of the extreme weather; and some areas in North Africa and Central Asia have also been hit hard.

Indeed, according to another website on the same topic yesterday, earlier this month the mercury hit 51.3 Celsius in Algeria, a new record high for Africa. Oman also recorded its hottest overnight minimum temperature, at just over 42 degrees Celsius.

Given that Gale Pacific's particular area of expertise is in screening and shading products, it would be a reasonable assumption that the sweltering conditions in the northern hemisphere this summer might well translate into an increase in sales over the last quarter of the last financial year.

In the half yearly presentation (19/2/18), the company mentioned that they had moved to a new, larger warehouse in California, the first step of an aggressive growth plan in North America. So the summer heatwave that has hit much of the United States over the past several weeks looks like it has come at a fortuitous time, and might more than offset the lower sales that resulted from the cool spring conditions in the US during the early months of this year (as mentioned in the updated earnings guidance announcement, 1/5/18).

The horrible, scorching conditions in various parts of North Africa and the Middle East over recent weeks could also help boost sales in the MENA region.