Columbus City Schools will be closed Wednesday for the second day in a row as temperatures are again expected to climb into the 90s. Closing school primarily for comfort rather than health and safety is difficult, said Superintendent Talisa Dixon. But a third of the district's schools lack air-conditioning.

Tuesday was not only the first day of October but also the hottest October day in Columbus — ever.

The National Weather Service reported a high temperature of 94 degrees Tuesday afternoon at John Glenn Columbus International Airport.

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That easily surpassed the previous high of 89 degrees for Oct. 1, which was recorded in 1952. And it was 3 degrees higher than the previous highest-ever temperature recorded in October in Columbus, 91 degrees on Oct. 2, 2007, said Allen Randall, a weather service meteorologist in Wilmington, Ohio.

"It's kind of a bubble that broke loose and over the central U.S. — a dome of high pressure and heat — and in the right place in Ohio to get really hot," said meteorologist Brian Coniglio, also of the Wilmington office. "It's kind of a settled air mass that's not allowing many clouds or precipitation. Summer won't go away."

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The high is expected to climb into the 90s again Wednesday, causing Columbus City Schools to announce that the district won't hold classes or after-school activities for its 51,000 students for the second day in a row.

Closing school primarily for comfort rather than health and safety is difficult, said Superintendent Talisa Dixon.

But a third of the district's 109 schools lack air-conditioning, Dixon said, detracting from "an optimal learning environment." The decision is subjective, she said, and not based on a temperature threshold inside a building.

"It's a tough decision anytime we talk about displacing our kids from the learning environment," she said. "Our students want to be here. Our staff wants to be here."

The district is requiring all essential personnel to report for work again Wednesday, including administrators and custodial employees. Bus drivers also must work because the district's buses transport students to charter schools and parochial schools where classes will be held. Columbus teachers, school-based secretaries, and nonessential employees will not report to work Wednesday.

Bri'ana Jackson visited the Columbus Museum of Art Downtown on Tuesday with daughter Nariya Jackson, a fourth-grader at Stewart Alternative Elementary School.

"It's hot in our house," said Mrs. Jackson, whose South Side home doesn't have air-conditioning. "And I didn't want to sit in our house today anyway."

For Mike Leyshon, a Columbus utilities worker who locates and measures underground lines from the streets, "it's just a little bit discouraging for October. I'm looking forward to Friday."

Sweaters might be needed Friday, which will feel a lot more like fall, which started Sept. 23.

The weather service's Randall said the high temperature on Thursday will be in the 80s, but a cold front entering the area late Thursday night into Friday morning will lower the daytime high Friday to a more fall-like upper 60s.

Coniglio said the typical vibrant colors of fall might fall victim to the dry summer and heat.

"It seems like (leaves) just dry up and fall off," he said.

"It may be a little duller than before," said Greg Smith, fall-color forester with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources' Division of Forestry. "But there should still be pockets of color."

Much of the color show depends on which of Ohio's 125 species of hardwood trees you're looking at and whether they are in a deep wooded area where they might be more tolerant of heat stress.

Saturday and Sunday are expected to be mostly sunny and pleasant, with highs in the 70s. The next chance for rain is Sunday night, Randall said.

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