Big Fans of Keeping Cool

We've been perspiring our way through a heat wave here in the eastern Buzz branch. Temperatures soared into the 90s and higher in New York City, up and down the East Coast, as well as parts of the Midwest and California. Unless you want to share the sad fate of some 50,000 roasted turkeys in Stockton, you should be cool and bust out the fans and the air conditioners.

As always, Search is a useful barometer of what's going on in the real world and we've witnessed a rise in queries for machines to keep us cool. Over the last seven days, searches for "attic fans" (105%) and "central air" sizzled. Awful heat also reminded some people they ought to fix broken machines, as the boost in "air conditioning parts" (+92%) can attest. And ceiling fans got a little lift with sweaty searchers most interested in Hampton Bay (+24%) and Hunter (+22%) brands.

Sadly, the way things work with online shipping and waiting for service, when we get our own ceiling fans installed, it'll be time to shut them down and don our winter coats.