The extremely high temperatures this week are being felt all the way down the Jersey Shore. Several towns are now operating cooling centers, despite being only a short distance away from the chilly Atlantic Ocean.

The Asbury Park Senior Center’s second-floor lounge is open for anyone who needs to take a break from the outside heat and get a cold bottle of water or sit in the air conditioning. Cooling sea breezes sometimes don’t make it to the west side of the city. The cooling center will remain open during operating hours to the local communities.

"We don’t want anyone having heat strokes out there. Just letting them come in, even if they don’t want to stay for a long period of time, we are here. They can come in, sit down, we’ve had some that come in who didn’t want to talk – they just wanted to sit down and cool off,” said Jennifer Rice, the Asbury Park Senior Center programs coordinating clerk.

Middletown has two cooling centers open to the public as of Tuesday, including one at the public library on New Monmouth Road. Middletown Office of Emergency Management recommends spending at least two hours a day inside an air-conditioned room during the peak heating hours. The director of the public library says there is plenty of space to welcome anyone who needs it.

“Depending on the situation, if it gets really bad, we can open for extra hours. We partner with the town and they can send some people over from OEM to help with that,” said Kate Hammond, director of the Middletown Public Library.

The library is open Monday through Thursday 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m.