Area residents are seeing a lot more mercury in the outdoor thermometer than they should be in early October, but the bottom should fall out Thursday night.

Jennifer Lake, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Pittsburgh, said early Tuesday afternoon that the unseasonably hot temperature was expected to top out at 89 degrees in Pittsburgh.

That would equal the record set in 1881.

But her colleagues reported just after 5 p.m. that the city reached a high of 88 degrees and failed to break the record.

The Pittsburgh office does not keep temperature records for Butler County.

She said the high temperature for Butler was forecast at 89 on Tuesday and 83 on Wednesday when the readings should be coming back in closer to the average temperature for Oct. 1, which is 67 degrees.

“We are in a huge bubble of high pressure right now,” Lake said. “We're getting all the heat from down south, and it is making for some pretty miserable conditions if you're a fan of those autumnal temperatures.”

But those who want to carve their pumpkins in cooler temperatures can wipe their brow and take heart.

“The good news is we have a front that moves through on Thursday and Thursday night,” Lake said. “Finally, we're going to get to a high temperature of 62 on Friday.”

Lake said there is a predicted 40 percent chance of above-average temperatures during the next three months.

“I think we are all hoping that it's going to cool down a bit in general,” she said.

As for fans of steamy weather who lament the disappearance of swimming pool conditions?

“It'll come back next year, don't worry,” Lake said.

Many parents of young children took advantage of the heat on Tuesday to get their tots out to the playground, perhaps for the last few times this year.

Mandy Reedy of Manor Township, Armstrong County, drove to Alameda Park's playground, so her kids could blow off some steam while having some fun.

“I really like this playground and my kids were bouncing off the walls,” Reedy said. “Kids can run around here.”

She said the playgrounds in her neck of the woods are at elementary schools, so she cannot access them during the day.

“I was actually hoping for cooler weather,” Reedy said. “It sure feels like July.”

She said she already switched her family's clothing over to fall and winter and had only a few summer outfits for them at the ready.

“It's very nice,” Reedy said. “It's a beautiful day.”

Crystal Pierce of Butler Township, who brought her baby daughter and two young children she babysits to the park, was in no mood to talk about the approaching chill of fall as she cradled her 1-year-old under a pavilion at the playground.

“I am loving it,” Pierce said. “I hate the cold, and I'm enjoying all the warm weather I can before the snow flies.”

Unlike Reedy, Pierce has refused to change her family's wardrobe over to long pants and sweaters.

“I'm hanging onto the summer ones, because I don't want the warm days to go away,” she said.

Haley Jewart of Butler Township enjoyed watching her child toddle around the soft playground surface at Alameda Park.

Jewart can go either way with the weather, she said.

“It's beautiful. I'm shocked it's so nice out,” she said.

Jewart didn't flinch at the thought of Friday's high temperature of 62 degrees.

“I like fall too, so I can't complain,” she said