PHILADELPHIA (AP) - You won't need a calendar to mark the start of summer in the northeastern U.S.
The National Weather Service forecast potentially record-breaking hot temperatures just as the season officially begins today, the summer solstice and longest day of the year.
Readings are expected to approach or top 100 degrees today and Thursday in cities including Philadelphia, New York and Boston. Health officials warned residents to drink water, stay out of the sun and in air conditioning, and to check on elderly neighbors and pets.
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Salesman Carlos Burgos helps customer Raven Campbell select an air conditioner at an electronics and appliance store Tuesday in the Brooklyn borough of New York.
After enjoying relatively mild June temperatures, Philadelphia may see the mercury soar to 97 and 99 degrees mid-week.
"You're talking about almost 15 degrees above normal," said Kristin Kline, a weather service meteorologist in Mount Holly, N.J.
Normally, the high for Philadelphia at this time of year is about 84 degrees - closer to today's predicted low of 80 degrees. The city's highs in the next couple of days could break decades-old records of 98 degrees, set in 1931, and 99, set in 1923.
The wilting heat also will hit Boston-area residents hard. Triple digits are forecast for today - 101 degrees - followed by 99 on Thursday, the weather service said. Current record highs for these dates are 98 and 95 degrees, respectively.
New York City's 1.1 million public school students are still in session for another week, and just 64 percent of classrooms are air-conditioned. Temperatures are expected to hit 97 in the city both days, about 20 degrees hotter than it was in Central Park on Tuesday.
Students were being advised to wear light clothing and drink plenty of water, and schools have been told to limit outdoor playtime, city Education Department spokeswoman Marge Feinberg said.
In Brooklyn, street vendor James Martin said he planned to buy a fan - "maybe two" - on his way home from work Tuesday to help cool off his family's Coney Island apartment.
The sixth-floor unit with no air-conditioning can get really hot, he said. But "we open the front door and all the windows, and we get a nice breeze!"
Forecasts for upstate New York today and Thursday called for temperatures to break 90 from Buffalo to the Vermont border, with highs topping out in the mid-90s in some places.
The cities of Buffalo and Rochester, N.Y., opened several spray parks on Tuesday to help residents cool off as hot, muggy weather settled in. Buffalo doesn't normally open its 11 splash pads until July 1.
Records might also be broken in central Connecticut. A Home Depot in West Hartford had stacks of air conditioners and fans ready to go, and city resident Sarah Savo was ready to buy one.
"Now that I work at home, I just can't work without air conditioning," said Savo, who will also be caring for her 3-year-old daughter. "Our home is very hot."
Philadelphia began a staggered schedule of opening its swimming pools on Monday, a couple of days after schools let out for the year.
Nearly two dozen of the city's 70 pools will be open by today, with another seven opening Thursday.
"We're very lucky that the pools opened yesterday," James Garrow, a spokesman for the Philadelphia health department, said Tuesday.
He added that the city will activate its heat hotline at noon today and will work with personal care homes, senior centers, libraries and recreation centers to make sure air conditioners are running.
Officials will be setting up 114 "cooling centers" at facilities across the city, said Garrow.
In Rhode Island, all regular public buses and trolleys will be free on today due to anticipated air quality issues.
Moderate relief should come this weekend.
