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 equals the record set in 1881. Lake anxiously awaited the late afternoon hours to determine if the 138-year-old record would be shattered on Tuesday. 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. She said the high temperature for Butler was forecast at 89 on Tuesday and 83 on Wednesday when the readings should be coming in closer to the average temperature for Oct. 1, which is 67 degrees.

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.”

This is an excerpt — pick up Wednesday's Butler Eagle or subscribe online to read more from the meteorologist and what some local parents out with their children in Alameda Park had to say about the heat.