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Time to hit the beach to work on that tan, dive in the pool to cool off and chase the neighborhood ice cream truck. Summer is officially here today.

While the season might as well have begun last week when temperatures ran 101 degrees on two consecutive days, the calendar tells us spring is over and summer has kicked in.

High temperatures in the 80s are forecast through the end of June, but the thermometer should again be getting into the 90s come July, according to AccuWeather. The end of June and July average highs in the 80s.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Climate Prediction Center calls for a 46 percent chance of above normal temperatures, a 32 percent chance of near normal temps and a 22 percent chance of below typical temperatures for July, August and September.

Spring crept to an end with a heat wave - at least three straight days of temperatures in the 90s - that last week spanned five oppressive days. "I wouldn't call it unusual. It is well within the range," meteorologist Matthew Belk of the National Weather Service in Taunton said of that string of steamy days.

Unusual or not, the hot spell broke a few records, including the highest temperatures - 101 - recorded for June in the 69 years the Attleboro Water Department has been compiling weather records. The previous record was 100 degrees in June of 1957.

Three straight days had record highs for the dates, and two of those days hit 96 degrees.

Topping it off, only nine other heat waves have been longer than five days, water department records show.

The last time the temperature hit 100 or above was 101 on Aug. 2, 2006. The thermometer also made it to 100 on July 18, 2006, and Aug. 13, 2005 - toward the end of a record 13 straight days of 90-plus temps.

The highest temp on the books is 103 degrees registered in July of 1995. Nine other dates reached 101 - all but two since 1995, and a day in July 1991 hit 102 degrees, water department records indicate.

Last week's oppressive heat prompted the New England office of the Environmental Protection Agency to issue an alert for unhealthy air quality, and water use in area cities and towns spiked.

The hot weather descended on us abruptly: Only the day before, the high temp for the day was a chilly 65 degrees.

Some other weather info from the spring:

After a record-tying warm April, May's weather was cooler, and a dry trend developed. The average daily high temperature was 70 degrees - 2 degrees above normal. Just 2.19 inches of rain - including about an inch in one day - fell in a month that usually sees about 4 inches. What started out as an extremely dry April - no rain for about two weeks, which contributed to a series of brush fires - returned to normal with more than 2 inches of rain at the end of the month, bringing the total to 4 inches.

The average daily high temperature was 65 degrees, which falls into a three-way tie for the highest on the books. The typical daily high for April is 57 degrees.

March ended continuing a winter trend of warm and wet weather. The average daily high temperature was 51 degrees, with a normal March seeing 46. Only six other years on the books had higher average temperatures.