LEO JUNI 21 NDIO JUA LIPO JUU YA TROPIKI YA KANSA-KASKAZINI, WALIOTESWA NA BARIDI ULAYA SASA WAFURAHIA JOTO, HEBU WAONE

Summer solstice debut sizzles Northeast

Aney Rodriguez (top), her sister Nena Rodriguez and friend Mariely Rodriguez, not related, all of Gaithersburg, Md., cool off under the fountains at Georgetown Waterfront Park, in Washington, on June 20. Temperatures across the Northeast are expected to approach triple digits.

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Celebrating the warm summer months, as schools let out and the cooling off begins

New June 20 records included: New York City's LaGuardia Airport at 98 degrees (previous record was 96 in 1953); JFK Airport at 94 degrees (topping 93 in 1955); and Newark, N.J., at 98 (topping 97 in 1953).
Temperatures were 10 to 20 degrees above average across the region and the humidity made it feel even hotter. -- msnbc.com

• Northeast starts summer with temps in the 90s

William Smalls plays pool and George Williams wipes his head to keep cool at the Kennedy Senior Center in Harlem, N.Y. on June 20. Set up by the Office of Emergency Management in New York, the center serves as one of many air-conditioned cooling centers located throughout the city to help New Yorkers beat the heat as temperatures soar on the first day of summer.

A kayaker make his way along the Mystic River as a sport watercraft approaches in Medford, Mass. on June 20. Temperatures reached 95 degrees in the greater Boston area along with high humidity on this summer solstice.

Steffanie Roberts gets kisses from her dogs Pink and Bear at her home on June 20, in Philadelphia. Temperatures climbed toward the high 90s along the Eastern Seaboard as an unusually early hot spell heralded the official start of summer.

Four-year-old Solaris Arias, of Providence, R.I. jumps through water spraying from an open fire hydrant in Providence on June 20. Much of the state remained under a heat advisory Tuesday afternoon because of the steamy air mass that has moved into the region resulting in temperatures in the 90s.

Manny Valdez, 16 from Arizona, leaps into a sprinkler in Central Park while Marley Henson, 16, also from Arizona, looks on in New York City, June 20, 2012. Valdez and Henson were part of a group of Rio Rico, Arizona students returning from an exchange program in Germany. New Yorkers tried to find ways to cope with the heat as temperatures soared on the first day of summer.