Lori Goldwyn, stopping for gas Sunday amid wilting heat in San Rafael, had a succinct assessment of the meterological situation.

“I hate it,” said Goldwyn, a former Marin County employee who lives in Point Richmond.

Heat records melted throughout the Bay Area on Sunday, including the 105 degree reading logged in San Rafael, according to the National Weather Service. The previous San Rafael record for the date was 98 degrees in 1962.

A new record temperature was also posted in Kentfield, where the 103-degree heat beat the previous record by one degree, the weather service said. The old record was set on June 18, 1945.

The good news? The worst of the heat appears to be past.

The not-so-good news? The upcoming “better” days aren’t much cooler.

“Whether it’s 102 (degrees), or 104 or 99, it’s not a big difference,” National Weather Service meteorologist Charles Bell said. “It’s just very hot.”

It was so hot Sunday — Pittsburg recorded a Bay Area-high Sunday of 111 degrees, and Concord and reached 108 — that the NWS extended a heat advisory for the Bay Area until 9 p.m. Thursday, advising Bay Area residents to avoid heavy activity in the heat and reminding them not to leave kids or pets in their cars.

The heat seemed to keep most people inside Sunday afternoon, though not everyone. Near the marina in Pittsburg, a young couple with a baby in a covered stroller briefly appeared.

They soon changed their mind.

“It’s just too hot,” said Alex Diaz said, who braved the heat with her husband and son. “We were going to walk a bit, get a bite and maybe sit in the shade. But we’re just gonna go home and put a wet towel on.”

Records for June 18 toppled in all corners of the region. San Francisco had 88 degrees downtown, up from the 1993 record of 86. San Jose was 103 degrees, sailing past the previous record of 99 in 1945. Oakland saw a high of 97, surpassing the benchmark of 93 set in 1962.

San Francisco International Airport on the Peninsula reached 97, nine degrees more than the previous high in 1981. Livermore’s 106 degrees Sunday bested the previous record of 105 set 99 years ago.

Bell said the temperatures may cooler by a few degrees through Thursday, when they could rise again to Sunday’s numbers. But he said Thursday could also be when an onshore flow of cooler weather that should make life considerably more comfortable next weekend.

“Right now, it really does look like Friday will bring some cooling,” he said. “Thursday should be the end of the oppressive heat.”

The heat increased as a high-pressure system settled in over the Bay Area, simultaneously redirecting any cooling flow away and trapping the heat and other particles low in the atmosphere — a weather pattern typical for the Bay Area in the summer months, Bell said. The pattern also dirtied the atmosphere enough that the Bay Area Air Quality Management District issued a Spare the Air alert for Sunday, the third of the summer season.

Bay Area News Service contributed to this report