Relief in the form of falling temperatures is coming, but for the next 24 hours, the forecast may not be considered enjoyable.

“Tomorrow and tomorrow night is our big transition period. We're going to have a cold front slowly move in accompanied by potentially heavy rain and thunderstorms,” said Jonathan O’Brien, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. “Beyond Monday and Tuesday we’re looking at relatively cooler and refreshing air for the middle and end of next week.”

Highs will be in the low 80s the remainder of the week, O’Brien said.

As temperatures rose to nearly 100 degrees in parts of North Jersey over the weekend, firefighters in Passaic on Saturday were busy battling a blaze at a three-story home.

There were no injuries to anyone in the Howard Avenue home or to firefighters, said Patrick Trentacost Sr., Passaic’s fire chief.

“It certainly makes it more difficult for the crews working on any fires,” O’Brien said about the excessive heat.

The city received mutual aid from surrounding municipalities as 80 firefighters took two hours to contain the blaze, Trentacost said. Firefighters stayed at the site until 1:30 a.m. Sunday after arriving at the home at 5:35 p.m. Saturday.

“On one of the hottest weekends of the year, I was concerned about the firefighters,” said Passaic Mayor Hector Lora. “That’s why we had mutual aid. They were able to sustain the fire at one location.”

The temperatures also broke records, with Atlantic City hitting 99 degrees Saturday, breaking a mark of 97 set in 1991, O’Brien said.

Safety concerns

The heat wave over the last several days caused concerns in North Jersey and New York City.

Cooling centers opened in Bergen, Passaic and Morris counties.

PSE&G and JCP&L did not report significant power outages, but Rutherford police said Sunday afternoon that 42 residences were hit with an outage.

At the Bergen County Jail in Hackensack, the air conditioning was repaired after a malfunction. Word of the malfunction, however, brought protesters Saturday demanding better conditions to inmates.

The New York City Triathlon, scheduled for Sunday, was canceled. It was the first time in its history the event was called off.

Despite the heat, the Denville Triathlon was held as scheduled.