NEWARK, N.J. — Record winter snowfalls were a distant memory Thursday, as a heat wave that has baked the Midwest started spreading across New Jersey.
Climbing temperatures and thickening humidity turned the air into an outdoor sauna along the streets of Newark, where 7-year-old Xaviah Holliday splashed water from a plastic bottle onto her grandmother to keep her cool.
"We're cooling ourselves off," the girl said with a laugh.
"We're enjoying the occasional breeze, but there's not much of it, so it's welcome," added her grandmother, Debora Simms.
An excessive heat warning in effect for the entire state will remain in place for most of New Jersey until 8 p.m. Saturday.
Newark reached 102 degrees Thursday, the highest temperature recorded in the state, followed by Trenton, which hit 100, according to the National Weather Service. The heat index — a formula meteorologists use to calculate what the temperature feels like on skin — registered 110 in Newark and 108 in Mount Holly.
Forecasters say heat and humidity will combine in some areas to make it feel like 115 on Friday and up to 110 on Saturday. They expect the heat to break by Sunday.
The state's largest utility expects to have no problem delivering additional power. PSE&G said crews were prepared for any service interruptions.
Residents are urged to drink plenty of water, limit time outside, and make sure elderly neighbors without air conditioning, as well as pets, are looked after.
Cooling centers were set up across the state and started filling up throughout the day on Thursday as temperatures continued to climb. At a cooling center in Newark's Ironbound section, Supervisor Alice Schreiner took the extra step of giving the elderly rides home, concerned that many had walked to the center in the heat.
Outside a Lakewood grocery close to the Central Jersey shoreline, Barry Whitham was sweating through his dark green army fatigues as he collected donations for the Veteran Support Organization.
The U.S. Army has long since replaced those fatigues with lighter colored uniforms that don't get as hot for troops in desert environments, Whitham said, but the old ones are good enough for him.
"It's tough, and I wish it was less humid," Whitham said. "I try to drink lots of electrolytes."
No air conditioner? No problem, said Mina Shaw of Lakewood.
"I love the heat, I enjoy it," Shaw said. "It lets me spend a lot of time in the pool with my family."
Despite the soaring temperatures, Kenny Alley of Ogdensburg had no choice but spend several days this week spreading tar — heated to over 550 degrees — on school roofs to get them ready for fall. Wearing an American flag bandanna, tar-splattered work boots and sporting a deep tan tinged with sun spots, he said part of a roofer's training is to recognize the signs of heat exhaustion in a co-worker.
"You could drink all day long, but when you're whole body gets hot, you start getting goose bumps, it's your body telling you it's overheating," Alley said. "When you feel yourself not sweat anymore — just dry up — then it's time to stop."
Many sought relief at the state's beaches, where temperatures were typically 10 or more degrees cooler than inland areas. In Atlantic City, a stiff wind and a huge bank of fog that enveloped the tops of the casino-hotels helped keep the Boardwalk cooler.
And in neighboring Brigantine, it was 79 degrees at the height of the afternoon heat; on the mainland, it was well over 90.
"It's pleasant," said senior citizen Antony Duchat as he sat on Brigantine's seawall. The fog made the ocean disappear 30 yards from the shoreline, but it also helped keep the temperature down. "It's actually pretty nice here."
Associated Press writers Wayne Parry in Brigantine, Josh Lederman in Lakewood and photographer Julio Cortez in Newark contributed to this story.
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