FRANKLIN—William Howell was taking it easy in the shade at the Franklin Farmers’ Market as he sold produce Wednesday morning.

“When it gets to 11 o’clock, you’ve got to be in the shade,” he said as the temperatures soared into the 90s.

“We’re approaching record highs,” said Rick Curry, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Wakefield office. Official temperature records for the region are kept in Norfolk. Curry said the record for Thursday is 99 degrees set back in 1981, and the high was 99.

“I wouldn’t say it’s unusual,” Curry said of the early-summer hot weather. “But it doesn’t happen every day.”

Joyce Buhls, who was also at the farmers’ market on Wednesday, said she didn’t plan to spend much time in the heat.

When asked whether she was planning to come out on Thursday, when temperatures were expected to be higher, Buhls replied, “No sir.”

Curry said the heat was the result of a high-pressure system over the area, clear skies, intense solar radiation and no strong winds or storm systems to cool things off.

“Towards the end of the weekend we expect to see cooler temperatures,” he said.

The NWS was forecasting Franklin to hit the 100-degree mark on Thursday with the heat index rising as high as 108 degrees.

High temperatures were expected to remain in the 90s through the weekend.