Meteorologist says Saturday high was record, predicts T-storm relief unlikely

Morgan Barnett of Rochester and Tiffany Legault, of Raymond,cool off at the Pines Municipal Pool Saturday afternoon as temps climbed into the mid-90s. (Rochester Voice photo

Residents of the Northern Seacoast are waking up today to what may be the warmest morning temperatures they've ever felt.

At 6:30 a.m. Rochester and the entire region was a humid 77 degrees with a heat index of 83. By 9:30 a.m. it was 82 with a heat index of 92..

That follows on the heels of Saturday's scorcher, which a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Gray, Maine, called a record high for Rochester at 96.

James Brown, a meteorologist with the NWS, said they had been keeping a data base on Rochester for only about 20 years, but he confirmed Manchester also had a record at 97. Manchester records date back to 1949, when they recorded the previous high for July 20 at 94.

Brown said the overnight low of 75 was also a new Rochester record for nighttime heat.

Today he predicted a high in Rochester of 95 with a heat index in the low 100s.

Unfortunately, while some forecasts have called for a possible afternoon thunderstorm to cool things off, that's not likely, Brown said.

"The fronts are all up near Canada," he said this morning. "I don't think you are going to see one."

On Saturday many Rochester residents sought refuge from triple digit heat indexes by visiting a cooling center at City Hall or one of Rochester's two municipal pools.

Lebanon residents were also offered cooling relief at Lebanon Fire and Rescue headquarters on Route 202 in South Lebanon, however a broken transmission line knocked out most of the town's power around 5 p.m.

It wasn't restored until a little before 10 p.m. At its height the power outage affected some 8,000 households in Lebanon, Acton and Shapleigh. Other outages were reported in Kittery, Maine.

Tonight's lows will finally drop back into the 60s with a high tomorrow at a more comfortable 82.