MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
People across the U.S. are currently sweating through a heat wave. Maine - and other northern states like it - has been considered a climate refuge in recent years. But Maine Public Radio's Molly Enking reports it didn't feel like much of a refuge yesterday.
MOLLY ENKING, BYLINE: At a pick-your-own strawberry farm on a hillside in the small town of Pownal, Maine, it's 10 a.m. and 95 degrees. Out front, a farm stand holds a dozen pints of huge, red, ripe berries. Farmer Dwight Ely is already done with his day - not because he wants to be, but because in this unusual heat, he has to be.
DWIGHT ELY: Our day started about 5 o'clock because we wanted to get out here and get the irrigation system going, and pick some berries ourselves early so that we'd have them on the stand.
ENKING: And prepare to welcome customers...
ELY: Almost all of them are regulars. Yeah.
ENKING: ...Who, despite the heat, showed up to pick their own by 7 a.m.
ELY: If I may say, the picking is good enough so that nobody was here that long.
ENKING: By 10, it's too hot to continue. Ely and his farm manager put up a sign - Bradbury Mountain Berry Farm's pick-your-own is done for the day. They cover the crop of strawberries with plastic shade cloth and hope for the best. This year, these berries have seen it all - drought in the winter, an extremely rainy spring, unseasonably late frost. And now Ely's hoping they survive this extreme heat, too.
ELY: I don't know if the plants will die, but the berries certainly will cook. Nothing we can do about it. The plants that are coming into production - they usually have a little bit more energy, and so I think they're going to be OK. We'll find out.
ENKING: At a popular state park down the road from the strawberry farm, the playground and parking lot sit empty. But it's another story the next town over, on the coast, at Winslow State Park in Freeport, says Kendra Williams, who works at the front gate.
KENDRA WILLIAMS: Today, it's been really busy. Yeah.
ENKING: By now, it's 96 degrees, and the humidity is making it feel worse. Much like wind chill will make a cold day feel even colder, high humidity can make 96 feel like 107. That's called the heat index - heat plus humidity. Williams says the park staff doesn't have a specific protocol in place for dealing with heat, but local police drive through several times a day.
WILLIAMS: They usually will come in, just do, like a quick loop, make sure everyone's doing good. Sometimes they'll come and eat their lunch and stuff.
ENKING: Winslow Park is on the coast, with a small stretch of sandy, muddy beach. Today, it's covered in colorful blankets, umbrellas and kids in water wings. Hilary and Matthew Kark live inland, near Portland. They just arrived for a swim.
HILLARY KARK: Yeah, we thought it would be cooler at the beach. But still feels quite hot.
ENKING: Kark says if it's between sitting at home in front of the AC or getting in the water, she'd choose the water every time.
For NPR News, I'm Molly Enking in Portland, Maine.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HEATWAVE")
MARTHA AND THE VANDELLAS: (Singing) It's like a heat wave. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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