Pull out your swimsuits and crank up the air conditioning -- scorching heat is going to be around for a while.

"For the next few days, we will be in the upper 90s to low 100s," said Brandon Dunstan, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Raleigh. "It's abnormally warm, but not unheard of."

The county was under a heat advisory Thursday.

Dunstan said the temperatures were cooler about this time last year. The Raleigh-Durham International Airport, where weather records have been kept since 1944, charted a high of 90 degrees and a low of 60 degrees on June 4, 2007.

Some local residents are heading for the hills -- literally -- seeking relief from the sweltering temperatures.

Cindy Layman, who was shopping in Southern Pines Thursday, said her family may head to the mountains this weekend.

"We're from Indiana, so we're a little shell-shocked right now," Layman said.

Other out-of-towners also were surprised by the extreme heat.

"I'm from Melbourne, Fla., and I thought it was going to be cooler here -- but it's not," said Coach Boyd, who was sitting on a bench beneath a shade tree Thursday on Broad Street in downtown Southern Pines.

But some locals, like Mike Poindexter, of Southern Pines, weren't surprised by the sudden warmth. He is stocking up with fans in preparation.

"It's what it was last year, except it's earlier this year, I think," Poindexter said.

Fortunately, Dunstan said, an early heat wave isn't a predictor of what is yet to come.

"It doesn't mean that it's going to be brutally hot for the rest of the summer," he said.

Contact Kellen Moore at 692-7271 or by e-mail at kellen@thepilot.com.