Air conditioners provided the only cool breezes of the weekend for much of South Florida, with record-setting heat in Miami and Fort Lauderdale.
And forecasters say Monday could be equally sticky and steamy -- and it's not even summer.
''Summer doesn't start until late June, but it won't feel any different from now to then,'' said Andy Tingler, a National Weather Service meteorologist. ``It'll be hot and humid from now until October.''
How's that for a forecast.
The temperatures could hit the mid-90s again on Monday in both Miami and Fort Lauderdale.
Don't expect a cool down, if you can call it that, until Tuesday, when the temperatures are expected in the mid-to-upper 60s in the early morning, with highs in the mid-to-upper 80s.
''We'll cool off about 10 degrees for Tuesday,'' said Tingler, adding ''we'll return to normal conditions'' for this time of year.
Even that will be a relief from the weekend.
The mercury hit 96 degrees Sunday afternoon at Miami and Fort Lauderdale's main airports -- breaking a record of 93 degrees in both spots for May 11 -- set in 1989 in Miami and 2006 in Fort Lauderdale.
The record heat of 96 degrees was recorded in Miami at 2:13 p.m. and in Fort Lauderdale at 3:27 p.m.
The temperatures in Palm Beach hit 94 on Sunday, breaking a record of 93 set in 1998.
It was the second day in a row that a temperature record went down in Fort Lauderdale. On Saturday, the high temperature in Fort Lauderdale was 95 -- breaking the prior record of 94 for May 10, set in 1967.
On Saturday, Miami came within one degree of setting a record: 93.
Breezes off the Atlantic Ocean usually help to bring the temperatures down a few degrees, but Mother Nature offered little relief on Sunday.
There were ''no sea breezes so the hot air just keeps blowing'' across the city, Tingler said.
Temperatures in the mid-90s are not frequent in South Florida, even for summer months, when breezes from the Atlantic keep the temperatures generally in the upper 80s to low-90s.
