It's October ... and it's hot in Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh’s North Shore was blast furnace hot on Tuesday morning, but Brenda Kremer and Kelly Stolp didn’t mind.

It was snowing back home in Montana.

“This is kind of nice,” said Kremer, 62, of Boulder, who was in town with family for Monday night’s Steelers game. “I’m definitely not used to 90 degrees in October.”

It wasn’t quite 90 degrees Tuesday morning, but the National Weather Service said temperatures could break a record high of 89 set in 1881.

“Right now, we’re still several degrees below that record,” said meteorologist Jared Rackley, noting that it was 88 degrees at 1 p.m. “It’s going to come close. I don’t know if we’ll break it, but we may come close to tying it. We’ll have to wait and see.”

Stolp said he started sweating while standing still Tuesday.

“I sweat at anything above 70,” he said.

The balmy weather brought bikers, walkers and runners to the North Shore’s river walk, including Dana Blitstein of Squirrel Hill and a dozen or so relatives who were looking for a place to cool off. They were disappointed to learn that the Water Steps in Riverfront Park were closed for maintenance. Next stop was the fountain at Point State Park.

“All the family is celebrating the Jewish New Year, and we’re out here looking for something to cool off in,” Blitstein said. “Now we’re going over to Point State Park, and we’re going to enjoy some fun in the sun. It’s like the middle of summer.”

Not everyone was enjoying the heat, particularly folks who had to work in it.

“I can’t stand it,” said Dreu Barker, an employee of Carnegie-based CBS Vending Corp., who was servicing vending machines at PNC Park. “You’re working in a truck that has a fiberglass roof. It’s like a greenhouse effect. When it’s 90 out, it’s like 100. I go through like three or four shirts a day.”

Bob Pook, an electrician with Kessler Electric of Castle Shannon, agreed. He and a partner were fixing lights outside McFadden’s restaurant.

“I hate the heat,” he said. “That’s why I’m telling him to hurry up so we can get out of here.”

Rackley said relief is on the way.

A cold front with possible rain is expected to roll in Thursday with a high temperature of 61 on Friday. The average for this time of year is 68, Rackley said.

“It’s almost hard to imagine,” he said of the temperature drop.