The city meanwhile, will open spray parks and cooling centers today and Thursday.
6-19-12 -Springfield- 4 year old Liza Kelleher of Springfield puts her best foot forward as she tests the water at the spray park at Kenefick park.
Don Treeger
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CHICOPEE – Spray parks and cooling centers will open and schools will close early Thursday and Friday as the city moves to help residents beat the heat.
Temperatures, about 82 degrees mid-morning, are expected to hit the upper 90s Wednesday and Thursday, CBS3 meteorologist Nick Morganelli.
Rising humidity, meanwhile, will make it feel like temperatures have edged into the triple digits.
Mayor Michael Bissonnette, posting on Facebook Wednesday morning, said schools will be half-day both Thursday and Friday, which is expected to see a high of 86.
There were too many field trips in the works to pull-off a half-day today on such short notice, according to Bissonnette.
Opening both days allows district to meet state law of being in session 180 days each school year, Bissonnette said.
Meanwhile, the Senior Center in Aldenville and the main library on Front Street will operate as public cooling centers through Friday.
“No one should be left out in the heat (with apologies to Joe K.), ” Bissonnette wrote in an apparent seasonal twist on the tagline that Joseph Kennedy uses in his ads for the Citizens Energy home heating program.
The state Department of Conservation and Recreation will open its various beaches and wading pools, including Chicopee Memorial State Park’s Reservoir Beach, on Wednesday. That’s three days earlier than the anticipated opening.
Chicopee follows Ludlow in closing schools early due to the steamy weather. Ludlow’s early school closings are set for Wednesday and Thursday.
The elementary schools, according to an automated message sent out Tuesday to members of the Ludlow school community, will end classes at 1:45 p.m. The middle school, meanwhile, will end classes at 1:15 p.m.
Ludlow High School students are already getting out early those days as a part of final exam week.
The city of Springfield does not anticipate declaring a heat emergency that would precipitate the opening of cooling centers in various areas of the city, said Helen R. Caulton-Harris, the city’s director of health and human services.
Springfield typically declares a heat emergency whenever heat indices are expected to exceed 105 degrees or nighttime temperatures are expected to remain at 80 or higher for three consecutive 24-hour periods. Neither of those benchmarks are expected go be hit this week, Caulton-Harris said.
Springfield schools have already closed for the summer.