SMASHED: Wilmington hits 101° to obliterate old record

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — For the third time in four days Wilmington saw a record high temperature. And for the second time in that span the mercury crossed the century mark.

Wilmington International Airport recorded an official daytime high temperature today of 101 degrees. That breaks the old record for the date of 96 degrees in 1967. Today’s temperature is only three degrees away from the highest temperature ever recorded in Wilmington of 104 set on June 27, 1952.

Click here for your WWAY StormTrack3 AccuWeather forecast

Just down the road, North Myrtle Beach set a record at 99 degrees. That was 10 degrees higher than the old record set in 1965.

This would have been the earliest in the year the Port City had ever hit 100 degrees if we had not already seen that record broken Sunday. Until this week Wilmington had never recorded a temperature above 100 earlier than June 1.

Monday’s high of 98 degrees at ILM was also a record. Tuesday’s high of 96 was just a degree off the record.

But we might not be done yet. The WWAY StormTrack3 Weather Team forecasts a high of 98 degrees tomorrow. That would top the record of 96 set all the way back in 1898. But the team says that should then be followed by a cooldown, which could have us back to our average high of 84 by the middle of next week.