For the second day in a row, Minnesota was enveloped in a thick blanket of heat on Saturday, with temperatures in the Twin Cities flirting with 100 degrees.

By late afternoon in the metro area, the temperature was stalled a degree below 100 in most of the metro area, although Crystal reported hitting three digits, according to the National Weather Service.

Several other state sites reported highs of 100 or even higher. Madison, in Lac qui Parle County, reported a high of 100.

Whether it hit 100 or not, the heat vaporized the previous record high of 92 set in 1911 and 1925, said NWS meteorologist Chris O'Brien in Chanhassen. A heat advisory is in effect for the entire weekend, he said.

Combined with Friday's 97 degrees, which also easily broke a record for June 4, the Twin Cities area is on track to experience the warmest first week of June on record, O'Brien said, a prediction that takes into account not just expected afternoons blazing into the 90s but overnight lows hovering in the 70s.

For June 5, the average high and low are 77 and 57 degrees, respectively.

Uncomfortably warm for sure, but it could be worse. The dew point, which reflects humidity, is just 59 degrees, which keeps the heat more bearable than it is later in the summer, when dew points rising into the 70s crank up the misery.

The downside of drier air is a risk of fires. The state Department of Natural Resources reported fire danger as high in southern and eastern portions of the state, very high in much of the northwest, and extreme in an area in the middle of the state.

On the bright side, the air quality was good to moderate throughout the state Saturday, according to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, which on Friday issued an air-quality alert for the seven-county metro and Chisago and Isanti counties.

Overall, it's a less-than-comfy early June by Minnesota standards. But again, it could be worse.

It could be July 14, 1936, when temps in the Twin Cities reached 108, the hottest on record. That year, during the Dust Bowl era, was the country's hottest ever, and a lot of high-temperature records were set, O'Brien said.

Worse yet, nobody had air conditioning.

Katy Read • 612-673-4583