CHICAGO – Area temperatures climbed into the mid-90s Sunday, prompting northern Illinois residents to search for shade, iced tea and other ways to cool off during what was expected to be the year’s hottest day so far.

The mercury climbed to 94 degrees in downtown Chicago by noon, but the heat index made it feel more like 101, the National Weather Service said. Temperatures were expected to continue climbing through the late afternoon hours.

“We’re definitely above normal,” said Edward Fenelon, a weather service meteorologist.

The typical high temperature for this time of year is 83 degrees, he said. It was unlikely temperatures would surpass the 1955 record high of 99 degrees. But forecasters expected the day to surpass a 93-degree high set last month.

The high temperatures combined with minimal rain and sea gull waste was being blamed for elevated E. coli levels that forced city officials to prohibit swimming at six beaches Saturday. The ban was lifted Sunday but advisories remained in place at two beaches.

Meanwhile, 16 passengers on a Chicago Transit Authority train were recovering Sunday after being hospitalized the day before when a suicide attempt forced emergency officials to shut down a train line for two hours, stranding passengers inside rail cars without air conditioning.

Some passengers did not wait for instructions from transit officials before deciding to leave the train for a nearby station platform.

“These gentlemen carried my boyfriend who can’t walk … onto the ramp. We never met them, we’re here on vacation from Florida and these people helped us just out of kindness,” Wanda Wols to WLS-TV in Chicago. “Other people were walking by and didn’t care, but they showed us there are nice people in Chicago.”

Triple-digit temperatures blanketing the West are being blamed for wildfires and other problems, but Fenelon said that weather pattern was having little effect on Illinois temperatures, which typically climb into the 90s this time of year.