(AP) "I MIGHT BE passing out soon", joked Mark Browne, a New York City firefighter who could feel the sweat pooling inside his heavy, insulated boots.

Readings rose past the 90-degree mark by early afternoon from the Mississippi Valley to the East Coast, and all the way north to New England, where Portland, Maine, topped out at 95, a full 10 degrees over the record for the date and the hottest day there since July 1995.

It was a bad day for the air conditioning to be out of order at New Hampshire's Legislative Office Building in Concord, where the mercury hit 94. "The hardest part is being nice", said Sandy Wheeler, an administrative assistant in the building. "You've got to act like you're refreshed. That's a job in itself."

Harrisburg, Pa., peaked at 96, tying a record for June 7 that had been on the books since 1925, and Newark, N.J., sweltered at 97. New York's Central Park reached 94.

In North Carolina, a section of Business Interstate 40 was closed at Winston-Salem because the pavement buckled in the heat.

Some 172,000 people jammed New York City's seven beaches to get some relief from the August-like heat.

The famous Swan Boats in Boston's Public Garden stopped running when the temperature hit 96 because that was too much for the drivers who pedal the boats. That usually doesn't happen until July or August. And it wasn't just people who suffered in the heat. Howard Cowen, owner of the Liberty Ice Coal & Oil Co. in Albany, said he got a call from the State University of New York at Cobleskill looking for ice to put in a fish hatchery because the water was too warm. The fish couldn't have handled the chlorine in his ice, so he had to refer the school to a competitor.

In White Plains, N.Y., Lorraine Zimmerman and her three young children were the only noontime diners at the outdoor tables set up by several restaurants. "I wanted to go into the air conditioning but I knew they wouldn't have it," she said, gesturing toward the kids. "But I am going to have a nice cold beer."