Kara Hickey of Massachusetts, left, sits Wednesday with Kyle Bell of Long Island, N.Y., and his dog Cooper on the colorful chairs along the banks of Kennebec River in Hallowell’s Granite City Park. She says they were on vacation and were enjoying the warm weather. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

AUGUSTA — Central Maine set yet another heat-related record Wednesday, marking the third time in the past week a daily temperature record has been broken.

Wednesday’s unofficial high temperature reached 76 degrees in Augusta and 73 degrees in Waterville, breaking the local record of 72 degrees, set in 2022. The area also broke records on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1, easily surpassing high temperature records set in 1956 and 2003, respectively.

The Portland area broke a record for the entire month Wednesday: The high of 79 degrees shattered the warmest temperature ever recorded at the site in the month of November, set at 75 degrees on Nov. 5, 2022. Augusta’s high temperature Wednesday tied the area’s all-time November record.

A high pressure system, similar to the one that brought record temperatures late last week, has continued to bring in gusty winds and warmer air from the south, National Weather Service meteorologist Greg Cornwell said.

“It’s holding up from having colder air flushing through, helping to resist that release of cooler air across Canada into our area,” Cornwell said. “It’s just offering more resistance than if it was weaker or positioned further off the coast.”

Forecasters at the National Weather Service expect a cold front to pass through the area Wednesday evening, briefly cooling off temperatures but failing to bring them below their above-average status.

Thursday’s high temperature forecast of 60 degrees is still 10 degrees above average for this time of year. Cornwell said normal temperatures will likely return early this weekend, but that the cooling may not continue into next week.

Kara Hickey of Massachusetts, left, sits Wednesday with Kyle Bell of Long Island, N.Y., and his dog Cooper on the colorful chairs along the banks of Kennebec River in Hallowell’s Granite City Park. She says they were on vacation and were enjoying the warm weather. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

Drought conditions, now impacting almost all areas of the state, are expected to continue amid the abnormally warm temperatures. The cold front Wednesday evening was not expected to bring much relief.

Many fire departments across the state have already taken action in recent weeks to stem potential fire risk by limiting burn permits. The Maine Forestry Service placed much of southern Maine under a “high” wildfire danger risk Wednesday.

“We don’t have very much precipitation in sight, so overall trend should be for that to continue to worsen,” Cornwell said.