Reaching 102 degrees Fahrenheit, temperatures in Gainesville broke a record that has stood since 1977.
Peter Wolf, a spokesman for the National Weather Service in Jacksonville, said Gainesville reached a high of 99 degrees Tuesday. By Wednesday at 4 p.m., it hit the record high.
Typically, July and August are the most common months for record-breaking numbers, Wolf said.
"Records are about a 100, 102," he said, "so it can get this hot, but [it's] a bit unusual this early."
The temperatures will cool down slightly over the weekend, he said.
The highest recorded temperature for Gainesville was 103 degrees in August 1915.
With such hot temperatures, exercising and spending time outdoors could lead to dehydration if people don't take precautions. Shannon Kirkpatrick, health promotion specialist at GatorWell Health Services, said people should drink about eights cups of water a day to maintain healthy and hydrated during the summer heat.
Some signs of mild dehydration are thirst, fatigue and loss of appetite. Drinking water could aid these symptoms, Kirkpatrick said, but for a person who has been exercising outdoors, sport energy drinks like Gatorade work best.
