It’s wicked hot in New England, too

AP Photo/Steven Senne
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — New England started off the week with heat advisories as the hottest weather of the year enveloped the region.

While the Pacific Northwest is experiencing record heat, the other side of the country — the Northeast — was also dealing with heat on Monday as temperatures climbed into the mid-90s.

It’s a good day to “hide in the basement, at a beach or under a sprinkler,” said Margaret Curtis, meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Maine.

Some New England electric utilities are asking customers to cut back on consumption to ensure there is enough power to satisfy demand during the hot weather.

The temperature hit 95 degrees on Monday in Portland, Maine, approaching a record high. But it felt hotter because of humidity that’s high enough that “you feel like you can swim through the air,” she said.

While hot, the temperature in Portland, Maine, pales in comparison to Portland, Oregon, where the mercury climbed to 112 degrees on Sunday.

On Monday, the temperature reached a record high of 94 degrees in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The old record, 93, was set in 1941.

Boston tied its record high for the day at 97.

The National Weather Service says record high minimum temperatures were set Monday in the Vermont cities of Montpelier and Burlington. The low temperature of 72 degrees in Montpelier beat the old record of 69 set in 2006. In Burlington, the low was 75, beating the old record of 74 set in 1901.

On Monday the Vermont Electric Cooperative asked its members to conserve electricity Tuesday and Wednesday evening because demand for electricity across the region is expected to increase in response to the hot weather.

And Vermont’s Burlington Electric Department said Monday it expected to issue a peak alert as part of its “Defeat the Peak” to encourage customers to save power between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Tuesday and possibly on Wednesday.