It's another scorcher for the record books: Houston tied its all-time high temperature Saturday as the mercury soared to 109 degrees at Bush Intercontinental Airport.

Only once, on Sept. 4, 2000, has Houston recorded such a torrid temperature. The sweltering day capped an August that was the city's warmest month on record with 26 of the 27 days reaching at least 100 degrees.

The warmth blanketed southeast Texas on Saturday.

Even Galveston reached 100 degrees, something that's only happened about a half-dozen times in that city's long history. Beach crowds had thinned out considerably, but officials weren't sure if it was the weather or the return of school year that kept families home.

"Nobody's out," said Houston Police Department Officer S. Blevins, who was on patrol from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Wearing a 3- to 5-pound safety vest underneath a uniform in the heat isn't easy, but Blevins said it's not something he focuses on throughout the day. "Once you finally stop, you're pretty much worn out," he said.

Braving the heat

While duty forced Blevins to brave the heat, others ventured outdoors to avoid going stir crazy.

Kelly Ranucci and her two sons toughed it out at the skate park in Eleanor Tinsley Park. "We brought an igloo full of Gatorades, but we've already run out and we've been here like 45 minutes," she said. "So we probably won't last much longer."

Jason Glover sat drenched in sweat on top of a table at the skate park, a rest stop in his weekend bicycle trek from the Galleria area to downtown.

"There's a lot of water and when you're on your bike there's wind," the 30-year-old said. "There's some shade out there, so it helps."

Jeff Harrison, who was out in the blistering heat taking pictures of the downtown skyline, had a day of outdoor activities planned. "We're going to go swimming today, so we'll probably be out for another couple of hours," he said. "I didn't want to sit inside today. I've been sitting inside for a long time. It was time to get out and about and have some fun."

Relief ahead

Despite the brutal heat - and, alas, today should be nearly as warm - relief does appear to be in sight.

The high-pressure systems that have baked Houston all summer appear likely to move east by the middle of the week, say forecasters with the Houston/Galveston office of the National Weather Service.

Daytime high temperatures should finally fall out of the 100s by Tuesday or Wednesday.

Computer models forecasters rely upon show a large area of tropical moisture moving north from the Caribbean and Bay of Campeche later in the week.

Such a feature has a good chance of bringing widespread showers into the greater Houston area toward the end of the week, as well as bringing daytime high temperatures into the lower 90s.

In other words, next weekend could be 15 degrees cooler than this one.

Staff writers Anita Hassan and Naheeda Sayeeduddin contributed to this report.

eric.berger@chron.com