Some flee the heat, and others bask in it

Like tens of thousands of the region's residents, Bob Shamble got an uncomfortable taste of the future during the weekend, but he learned something invaluable about his air-conditioning system.

"It works," he said yesterday while visiting the Logan Square fountain with his daughter. "We found that out."

As temperatures nudged past 90 yesterday, Philadelphians set a record for electricity use on a late April day, said Ben Armstrong, a spokesman for Peco Energy Co.

On Sunday, when the temperature soared to a record 93, Peco reported that electricity usage shot up about 20 percent above that of a normal late-April Sunday.

The temperature hit 92 yesterday at 3:05 p.m., just missing the April 27 record of 93 set in 1915. When the temperature hit 90 for the third consecutive day - it made it to 90 on Saturday - it met the official government criterion for a "heat wave."

But what's a few degrees among friends? For those keeping score, yesterday afternoon it was about 25 degrees warmer than it's supposed to be on an April 27.

In fact, it was so hot that the Blasius Chocolate Factory in Northeast Philadelphia had to hold off on making several thousand molasses taffies that it supplies to Shore businesses, said owner Phil Kerwick.

Philadelphians around the city basked in and fled from the heat.

At the JFK Plaza fountain - still bone dry - Mina Smith-Segal worked on a painting of the Clothespin sculpture. "I come [to paint] every day the sun is out," the retired art teacher said. The only problem yesterday was that "it's too hot, and people need shade."

Tourists remained in town yesterday and kept business good for the food carts.

Bas Encarnacion, who runs a kabob cart across from the Liberty Bell, said "compared to other days, [business] is better."

Esther Bowens, one of his customers, waited in line at the cart, while flames sizzled and chicken and pork crackled on the grill.

The heat foiled her first lunch attempt. Bowens first tried to get a smoothie, but the line was too long, she said, pointing to a cart at Fifth and Market. "I'm just pretty flexible with the food choices," she said, "depending on my mood. But I have to come outside."

Diane Wiland, director of the Cape May County Department of Tourism, said: "It was incredible for this time of year."

"There was still a crowd on the Wildwood boardwalk at 5, and it was supposed to close at 5," she said, "Ocean City, the same thing. It was a little bump for us."

At Penn's Landing, Izaiah Williams, 17, sat with Breah Rorie and watched the Delaware flow. "You could fry an egg on this," said Rorie, pointing to the stone wall behind her. "I bet you could make waffles on it," she added.

Despite the heat, she and Williams were enjoying the sun. The only disturbances to the scene were the tour boats. "We see them every 10 minutes," she said. "One goes and another comes."

The heat has interrupted what had been a sweater-worthy, damp April. Close to four inches of rain has fallen this month, about an inch above normal.

That makes the heat all the more puzzling. Typically, wet ground repels heat because it forces the sun to use energy to evaporate water.

However, the relatively shade-less trees evidently allowed the sun to do some of its best work, said Bob Stauber, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Mount Holly.

The heat agent is an area of high pressure off the Atlantic Coast, a so-called Bermuda high, said his colleague Patrick O'Hara. Winds circulate clockwise around high centers, so Philadelphia is getting warm winds from the south.

Unlike typical summer heat, this surge was accompanied by low humidity, since the winds in the upper atmosphere were mostly from the southwest.

Also, in terms of the threat of heat deaths, this was not a particularly dangerous air mass since the drier air allows for more cooling at night. Warm nights actually are more of a threat to the vulnerable population than hot days, health experts say.

By tonight, a cold front should come through, and tomorrow, the region should see an outbreak of normal late-April activity: complaining about the dreary weather.