Philly sets a record with a high of 99, and the city expands health emergency through a steamy Monday

After setting a record Sunday and aiming at another one Monday, Philadelphia’s longest heat wave of the season to date might execute a dramatic exit.

Both the city’s “heat health emergency” and the National Weather Service’s “excessive heat warning” remain in effect Monday as the air could be even more infused with shirt-soaking moisture, said Sarah Johnson, warning coordination meteorologist at the weather service’s Mount Holly Office.

That could ignite severe storms as a front approaches. “We even have a threat for a tornado in the area,” said Alan Reppert, senior meteorologist at AccuWeather Inc.

» READ MORE: The recent dry spell has helped drive up temperatures

Whatever does or doesn’t happen, meteorologists promise that the impending front will rout the heat wave that produced an official high of 99 in Philly on Sunday, a July 24 record. The low Monday might not get below 80, threatening the record for a high minimum for the date.

But readings Tuesday won’t get higher than the mid-80s, it appears that a prospective flash hot spell for late in the week is off the table, and high temperatures right on through the weekend might not stray very far from the seasonal normal, 88.

Based on an informal survey of fans who attended the Phillies-Chicago Cubs game on an afternoon when shade at Citizens Bank Park was as wanting as the Phillies’ offense, a whole lot of sweltering local residents and visitors would welcome a dose of “normal.”

Succinctly summarizing the state of the atmosphere, Diana Burger, 81, of Phoenixville, said: “It’s bad.” Burger was taking refuge in the concourse, where a glassed-in air-conditioned area was available. She attended the game with family members, including her daughter-in-law, who treated her to the game as a belated Mother’s Day present.

The downside, she said, was that after the cool break, it was “hotter in the stands.”

The announced crowd was just under 30,000 — in full-boo mode, despite the heat, as the Cubs completed a three-game sweep by defeating the locals, 4-3 — but some of the sunniest sections of the park were seas of blue as the game started just after high noon.

One couple reported spraying their seats with water to cool them off.

Cubs’ fan Masato Yasui and his wife, visiting from Rochester, who were hanging out in a cooling area in the seventh inning, said they had sat in their seats for all of 10 to 15 minutes.

“We have great seats,” said Kurt Hamson, “but they’re both right in the sun.” He was at the game with Bailey Gallagher; both of them work for a physical therapy company in Delaware and were on a company outing.

They opted for shade and visited the inflatable mister that the Phillies set up on a concourse near home plate. It wasn’t exactly a cold shower.

An hour later, Lisa Gallagher was sitting on a bench with her 8-year-old daughter after emerging from the contraption. “I wish there could have been a little bit more mist,” she said. “And it seems like [the mist] is blowing up, rather than blowing down on the children.”

Sophia Flowers, 29, of Northeast Philadelphia, said she and her husband, Kareem Flowers, seemed to be doing OK in their seats in Section 137.

“But when I stood up I started feeling dizzy and nauseous,” she said, sitting in one of the air-conditioned lobbies, drinking water and cooling off. Her husband was insistent that they needed to get home.

No heat-related deaths have been reported in Philadelphia, but at least two have occurred in the Northeast, and residents in much of the country were seeking relief from the heat during the weekend.

» READ MORE: A summer paradox: Temperatures are up, but heat-wave deaths are down

Newark, N.J., experienced a record fifth consecutive day of 100 degrees or higher, the longest such streak since records began being kept in 1931. Boston also hit 100 degrees, surpassing the previous daily record high of 98 degrees, set in 1933.

Athletic events were shortened or postponed. Organizers of the New York City Triathlon cut the distances that athletes had to run and bike. This weekend’s Boston Triathlon was put off until Aug. 20-21.

On the West Coast, forecasters warned of extreme heat arriving early this week and lingering until the weekend. Temperatures could break daily records in Seattle, Portland and Northern California by Tuesday and climb to the highest level since a heat wave last year that killed hundreds of people across the Pacific Northwest.

This is the peak heat period in the North Temperate Zone, and the increasing global temperatures associated with climate change are likely giving the current widespread heating an uncomfortable assist.

“There’s not too much in the way of cool weather across the nation,” said AccuWeather’s Reppert.

» READ MORE: Philly's summer temperatures have risen in the last 50 years

Certainly none around here.

Even at 7 p.m., the heat index in Philadelphia was at 103 degrees, said Johnson. And even though temperatures are going to be several degrees lower on Monday, given the amount of water vapor in the air, “it will be quite uncomfortable,” she said.

Heat indexes could rival Sunday’s, she added, and it will be “dangerously hot.”

By extending the heat health emergency through Monday, the city will keep its cooling centers operating.

Health Commissioner Cheryl Bettigole again urged residents to look in on neighbors and family members, especially the elderly, who might be especially vulnerable to the prolonged heat.

This was the city’s first heat emergency, and the weather service’s first heat warning, of the season.

The city first declared it Thursday, then extended it through the weekend, and on Sunday decided to continue it through Monday.

“We’re doing everything we can to get resources to our citizens,” said Allison Miller, communications coordinator for the Philadelphia Office of Emergency Management.

That has included outreach through many different organizations, phone chains, pools, splash pads, cooling buses and cooling centers at 12 libraries.

The libraries are more popular than the buses, she said.

“The bus doesn’t have laptops, books and magazines to read.”

She had no numbers on how many people have availed themselves of the cooling opportunities but suggested that, in time, nature will be providing cooling centers of its own.

She suggested Code Blue warnings will be here before we know it. She said this semi-seriously.

Still, only 149 days to winter.

This article contains information from the Associated Press.