Boston hits 100 degrees, setting record for the date as heat wave scorches the state

On sixth day of heat wave, city breaks 1933 record

People found shelter whenever their could along Revere Beach at its Sand Sculpting Festivial.Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff

Boston temperatures reached 100 degrees mid-afternoon on Sunday, the sixth and hottest day of a heat wave that has scorched the region over the past week.

The thermometers at Logan International Airport hit triple digits at 2:13 p.m., according to Kyle Pederson, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s Boston/Norton office. The last time temperatures in Boston crossed the 100 degree mark was June 30, 2021, and the previous July 24 record was 98 degrees set in 1933.

“I’ve been in Boston for 60-some years, and this is the baddest heat I’ve ever seen,” said Annette Gilbert, a 74-year-old who was seeking relief at a Dorchester cooling center on Sunday. “It’s never been like this.”

Lawrence and Norwood also saw the mercury rise past 100 degrees on Sunday, according to the weather service.

The 90 degrees-plus streak may be broken on Monday, as the National Weather Service forecasts a high of 89 degrees in Boston and high 80s in the rest of the region, Pederson said.

A cold front will arrive Monday afternoon, bringing with it showers, thunderstorms, and relief from the heat, Pederson added. The National Weather Service forecasts temperatures in the low 80s on Tuesday and reduced humidity. The average high temperature for Boston this time of year is 82 degrees.

On Sunday afternoon, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu extended the city’s heat emergency through Monday.

Marilyn Funches-Dooley, 66, who was playing dominoes with Gilbert and another friend at a cooling center in the Grove Hall Senior Center, lives next to a boiler room, she said, and a health condition keeps her from turning on the air conditioning, making temperatures unbearable.

“My house is burning up, and I couldn’t tolerate it,” said Funches-Dooley, who lives in Dorchester. “It’s just too hot, and I wish it would go away.”

Many of the people who come to the cooling center are on fixed incomes and can’t afford to run their air conditioners all day, said Aidee Pomales, the center’s administrative coordinator.

Across the city on the Rose Kennedy Greenway, others found a different way to keep cool.

“It’s super hot,” Grant DeFranco, 6, yelled as he sped back toward the Rings Fountain for another run through the jets of cool water.

Maureen and David Rubino and their 12-year-old niece, Gracie Hillenmeyer, all cooled off in the water at the fountain after a bike ride from their South Boston home.

“Anything to beat the heat,” Maureen Rubino, 56, said. “And lots of ice cream too.” David Rubino, 59, and Gracie nodded in agreement.

Not everyone has been able to handle the heat.

The emergency room at Massachusetts General Hospital has seen an uptick in visits from people with heat-related illnesses since the middle of last week, said Dr. Ali S. Raja, the deputy chair of the hospital’s emergency medicine department.

The hospital is seeing illnesses caused directly by heat, like passing out or dehydration, but also an increase in heart attacks and strokes, which can be exacerbated by heat stress, Raja said.

“Simply because of just how long this is lasting, we’re seeing more patients coming in overall with heat-related illnesses,” he said.

Boston EMS responded to more than 30 heat-related calls on both Friday and Saturday, putting the total over 80 from Tuesday through Saturday, a spokeswoman said by e-mail. The EMS has seen a 15 to 20 percent rise in call volume during the heat wave, she said.

The current heat wave is tied for the 10th longest stretch of days over 90 degrees in Boston, National Weather Service meteorologist Torry Gaucher said. The record is nine days, set in 1912.

Three factors are contributing to the persistent heat, Gaucher said. A large mass of warm air has been stuck over the region for several days, high pressure has kept that warm air in place, and winds closer to the ground from the southwest have brought warm air north, he said.

Climate researchers say that heat waves will only grow more intense and frequent in New England unless more is done to curtail carbon emissions. Bostonians could see 42 days over 90 degrees by 2050 under a high-emissions scenario, a recently published report found.

Dorchester was especially hard hit by the heat on Sunday after some 20,000 people lost power there Sunday afternoon. About 3,200 Eversource customers in Boston remained without power by Sunday night, including about 700 in Dorchester, according to an online outage map.

Despite the outage, no one was at the cooling center at the John P. Holland Community Center Sunday afternoon. The reason, coordinator Chenault Terry said, is that the pool is not open.

“It’s really sad because most of the pools in Dorchester are under renovation,” said Terry. “We’ve really slowed down because that was our main thing.”

Globe correspondent Nick Stoico contributed to this report.