Trending Tuesday: Climbing Mercury

Extreme heat watch greets Capital Region’s biggest weekend of the summer

A Hula Hoop dancer performs during a Pearlpalooza festival in Albany last year. The temperature promises to be considerably warmer this weekend. [Photo Credit: Michael Hallisey]

The National Weather Service issued an Extreme Heat Watch for the Capital Region from 10 a.m. Wednesday to 8 p.m. Friday, the same three days organizers expect their largest crowds of the summer.

Saratoga Race Course opens for the season. Schenectady County lights up its Fourth on the Third. And in Albany, New York State’s 250th Independence Day celebration returns to Empire State Plaza one year after its fireworks gave way to gunfire.

The heat comes first.

Heat indices will climb to between 95 and 110 degrees from Wednesday through Friday, with little overnight relief from the heat stress, the National Weather Service’s New York forecast office said in a discussion issued Sunday.

Saratoga is its own universe — the horses, the politics, the arts scene that refuses to quit, the restaurants that open and close like theater productions. If you want to keep up with all of it, The Saratoga Dispatch has you covered. Consider it required reading for anyone who takes the 518 seriously.