The Associated Press
BISMARCK -- Kenneth Moon's air conditioner has done little more than take up space since he bought it nearly 30 years ago. He got it out Sunday.
Moon, who lives west of Pick City, said he fired up his air conditioner well before noon on Sunday, when temperatures were surging toward the century mark.
"I've probably only used it four times since I bought it in 1978," Moon said. "It's on now."
The National Weather Service issued a heat advisory Sunday afternoon for south central and western North Dakota, where temperatures hit 90 degrees before noon.
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Several cities in western North Dakota were primed to set record temperatures, said meteorologist Rich Leblang, at the National Weather Service office in Bismarck.
The city of Bismarck just missed the century mark, with a high of 99 degrees, the weather service said. The heat index made it feel more like 101 late in the afternoon. Jamestown's heat index made it feel like 105 degrees there around 5 p.m., even though the temperature was in the low 90s.
"It actually felt warmer in the east because they had much higher humidities," meteorologist Todd Hamilton said.
Williston climbed to a high of 102 degrees Sunday. Dickinson reached 97, after a record high temperature of 102 on Saturday. It topped the record of 100 degrees set in 1936.
The mercury also soared above 100 degrees Sunday in northwest South Dakota and eastern Montana, the weather service said.
North Dakota's all-time high temperature was set at Steele in July 1936, at 121.
Leblang said no rain was forecast in the state until Wednesday evening. He said temperatures are expected to top triple-digits in western North Dakota until then.
"We'll be looking at 100-degree temperatures -- or slightly above -- every day until Wednesday, when that front comes through," Leblang said.
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Vince Godon, a meteorologist with the weather service in Grand Forks, said temperatures in the eastern part of the state on Sunday were in the lower 90s.
"It's still hot, but not quite as hot as it is out west," Godon said.
A heat advisory means that a period of hot days is expected, increasing the risk for heat-related illness. The weather service says people should check on relatives and neighbors, drink plenty of fluids, stay out of the sun, preferably in an air-conditioned room.
Moon, who owns a nursery near Pick City, said he planned to do just that. Moon said he would only go outside to check trees at his nursery for spider mites, which he said thrive during sizzling temperatures.
He said his seldom-used 29-year-old air conditioner was doing a good job of keeping him and his family cool in the scorching heat.
"It's working fine," he said.
