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Under Heat Advisory, Boston Reaches Triple Digits

Children cooled off in Boston Common's Frog Pond Tuesday. (Jeff Carpenter for WBUR)
Children cooled off in Boston Common's Frog Pond Tuesday. (Jeff Carpenter for WBUR)

Greater Boston temperatures reached 100 degrees Tuesday afternoon — the hottest the city has been in eight years and one degree shy of the all-time record for July 6.

The heat settled in after the National Weather Service early on Tuesday issued heat advisories — lasting until 8 p.m. — for many areas surrounding Boston, Worcester and Springfield.

Though not under heat advisories, an air quality alert was also issued for Cape Cod and the Islands.

In Boston, city officials reached out to nearly 50,000 elderly residents, advising them to avoid physical activity and stay inside. The city also opened cooling centers where residents could take shelter from the heat.

Emergency response teams prepared for a possible rise in heat-related illnesses with extra response vehicles on hand and meteorologists warned residents to take extra precautions to stay safe and cool, advising staying hydrated and under shelter.

Those who ventured out, like the Department of Environmental Protection's Jordan Macy, who took his lunch break on Boston Common Tuesday, felt the oppressive heat.

A Commonweath Avenue CVS advertised water as the temperature climbed. (Jeff Carpenter for WBUR)
A Commonweath Avenue CVS advertised water as the temperature climbed. (Jeff Carpenter for WBUR)

"Last time I was in the center of the sun, it felt just like this," Macy said. "Spontaneously combusting is pretty much what we're looking at right here. We're very much concerned about that on a day like today."

Despite the heat wave, New England's power grid is not expected to break its record electricity use of four years ago.

ISO-New England, the region's grid operator, said Tuesday that consumer demand is expected to reach a peak of 27,000 megawatts. The record is 28,130 megawatts used on Aug. 2, 2006.

"Although we don't expect to break the record for all-time electricity consumption today, there are a lot of variables at play, where we could see consumer demand reach record-breaking levels," ISO's Marsha Blumberg said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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This program aired on July 6, 2010. The audio for this program is not available.

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