Cities in New Hampshire have broken temperature records during summer’s first heat wave.
On Monday, Concord reached 97 degrees, breaking the previous record of 94 degrees registered in 2020, said National Weather Service forecaster Sarah Jamison. Lebanon tied its all-time temperature record, hitting 99 degrees.
According to Jamison, temperature records could also be broken today. The prediction is that most cities in the state will be at or above temperature records.The current 95 degree record for Concord will most likely be broken.
Next week, Monday and Tuesday will also be warm, but not to the same degree, said Paul Pastelok, senior meteorologist with AccuWeather. After that, a cold front will knock temperatures down.
It’s difficult to predict future heat waves, Pastelok said in an email, but late July and August can see some “strings of hot days” due to dry periods across the upper Midwest, Great Lakes and parts of the Northeast.
While this June saw slightly higher temperatures compared to last summer, Pastelok says this year does not seem on track to break last year’s “hottest summer on record” title.
“There may be a lot of back and forth with disturbances, warmups and cool downs,” he said. “The back and forth may cut into the 90 plus [degree] days this July,” which will lower the number of days above 90 for the season.
In Concord, people found welcomed relief Tuesday from scorching temperatures when stopping by the public library.
While it’s difficult to have exact numbers on how many people stop by to escape the heat, circulation desk staff said on especially hot days late mornings and early afternoons tend to be more busy.
“I think a lot of people come into the library to use the air conditioning, especially last year when we were having a couple of very warm days,” said reference librarian Nora Cascadden. “And the beginning of this week, it was definitely quite busy Monday.”
According to library director Todd Fabian, staff members worked to ensure the AC system could run smoothly this summer, especially after experiencing some trouble last year.
“We just had to do quite a retrofit for this summer to make sure that we didn't have the issues we had last summer,” he said. “So, so far, so good.”
Megan De Vorsey is a regular at the library, but on Tuesday she found an extra incentive to visit.
“I'm here a lot, but I was thinking about the air conditioning as I walked down here,” she said. She confessed though that she was also attracted to their current 25 cent used books sale.
Wally Keniston, a librarian and used books dealer, also stopped to check out the book sale. “But the cool temperatures are definitely welcome,” he said.
Haley Smith has been visiting the library since she was a little kid, but she said she might stop by more often this summer to also enjoy the AC.
