By Sharon Keeler
UNH News Bureau
603-862-1460

August 8, 2001

DURHAM, N.H. -- With today's temperature expected to top 90 degrees, New Hampshire is experiencing its first official heat wave of the summer.

A heat wave is defined by three consecutive days with temperatures of 90 degrees or over.

Durham recorded high temperatures of 91 degrees on Monday and 95 degrees on Tuesday. Other Tuesday high temperatures in the region include: 95 in Concord, 93 in Keene, 96 in Portsmouth, 93 in Rochester and 66 on Mount Washington -- 72 degrees is the highest temperature ever recorded there.

The high humidity, says Barry Keim, state climatologist at the University of New Hampshire's Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space, is making it feel even worse.

"Durham's heat index on Tuesday, for example, was about 100 degrees," he says.

The forecast is for even hotter temperatures tomorrow, with the potential of topping 100 degrees and breaking records in some sections of New England, including New Hampshire.

"It could be worse," says Keim. "In July 1911, an 11-day extended heat wave set record-high temperatures at many spots across New Hampshire and New England. Keene, for example, recorded daily high temperatures of 91, 95, 104, 103, 101, 88, 91, 99, 102, 99 and 95 degrees."

According to the National Weather service, the heat and high humidity is expected to last until Friday, when a slow-moving cold front approaches from Canada.