It’s so hot outside that Miami broke a record. Then Miami broke it a second time

Miami just set a high temperature record that had held for 31 years. A day later, Miami set another high temperature record it had first set four months before America entered World War II.

With Wednesday’s reading of 96 degrees at Miami International Airport, the mark beat the old record of 95 degrees set on Aug. 17, 1991, said Larry Kelly, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Miami.

What about Thursday?

“The record is 95,” Kelly said Thursday morning. “So we could get close. We’re forecasting 94 degrees today so we are pretty close — 95 was set in 2017.”

We got more than close. We jumped over that hurdle as soundly as American Sydney McLaughlin, the 2020 Tokyo Olympics gold medalist.

The temperature reading at Miami International Airport on Thursday hit 96, beating 95 degree readings previously hit on Aug. 18, 1941, and then again on that date in 1995 and most recently on Aug. 18, 2017.

Don’t expect a threepeat Friday, though, Kelly said. The Aug. 19 record is 96 in 1909. “The winds have shifted a little bit more southeasterly so we shouldn’t do that and the sea breeze advanced inland to Miami a little sooner than it has been the past few days.”

Expect 93 in Miami Friday, he said.

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“Feels like the 100s,” said CBS4 meteorologist Lissette Gonzalez on Thursday.

The heat index forecast Thursday afternoon called for it to feel like 105 or 106 degrees. The threshold for an official heat alert is 108 degrees but anything in the triple digits is more than enough to cause discomfort and even fatal heat strokes.

If you work outdoors or are susceptible to heat-related problems, by all means hydrate and try to stay out of the sun as much as you can. Never, ever leave anyone unattended in parked cars, even with the windows cracked — and that goes for pets, too.

Is the heat going to tick down by the weekend?

Expect temperatures to dip into the low-90s instead of the mid-90s Friday and into the weekend, Kelly said.

“The easterly sea breeze should be able to work in through the metro areas and bring down temperatures a degree or two. Instead of it being 93, 94, being more like 90, 91. More normal — only two or three degrees,” he said, chuckling.

The comparative cool-down should also pull the heat index down from 105 or 106 to around 101 to 103 in the weekend forecast, the weather service said.

Still hot. Still be careful.

Orlando is expecting heat index readings of 102 to 107 through the weekend with highs in the mid-90s.

These 105 degree-range heat indices are also expected in Naples.

Weekend rain?

Gonzalez also forecast potentially heavy downpours, with gusty winds, around 4 p.m. and the rush hour Thursday with a likely repeat on Friday and the weekend, she told her CBS4 viewers.

The storm chance is due to ongoing west-southwesterly winds that will bring showers and storms to Florida’s interior and east coast. Some of the wind gusts could hit 40 mph in these storms.

Gonzalez and Kelly both point to changing wind patterns that could bring more of a storm chance over the weekend.

“For the weekend we’re going to flip, and Friday winds will go more southerly than southeasterly,” Kelly said. “So that will concentrate showers and storms over the interior and west coast. So a little change in the weather pattern for the weekend.”

South Florida’s storm chances are 30% Thursday and Friday and then kick up to 50% Saturday and Sunday and 60% Monday and Tuesday. Bradenton and the Tampa Bay region mirrors South Florida’s rain chances.

Orlando is getting that nasty weather earlier, with a 60% storm chance Thursday, 60% Friday, 50% over the weekend and Monday and 60% Tuesday.

Naples eyes a slight storm chance Thursday but the forecast calls for 60% Saturday and Sunday.

The Keys top out at 40% over the weekend.