BWI Thurgood Marshal Airport, the county’s official weather service station of record, hit 94 degrees (with a heat index of 99) on Friday, the 12th day this month at 90 degrees or hotter.
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Temperatures as high as 40 degrees C (104 degrees F) were expected in some areas through Monday.
Forecasters have been warning about excessively hot and humid conditions that have pushed the heat index to well over 100 degrees across a large portion of the central United States this week. The low for Saturday night is expected to be around 73 degrees.
The report, which still awaits confirmation, came during a heat wave that raised already sweltering temperatures across the region even higher. A normal dew point is 60 to 65. So temperatures down there could feel hotter than what the thermometer reads.
To start the weekend off, Saturday’s high temperature in Central Park topped out at 96 degrees, according to the NWS.
Daryl Herzmann, a scientist at Iowa State University, said reliable records for such data only go back to October 2005, meaning the last time all three were under such an alert could go back much farther.
“Absolutely”, said Sue Campbell, a manager at Home Depot in Newton, when asked if people were coming into the store and buying fans and air conditioners. In 2013, the county saw six straight days of 90 degree weather from July 15 through July 20.
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Slightly cooler temperatures, with highs in the upper 80s, are predicted from Monday through Wednesday, according to the weather service.
