Corrine Haley strolled slowly down Yosemite Avenue Thursday afternoon, letting her flip-flops glide across the warm pavement.

With the temperature hovering at around 90 degrees, most people walking along Manteca’s main corridor were either hurriedly heading for their destination or finding solace in any shade they could find – chatting with friends as the summeresque day unfolded around them.

Not Haley. She’s been waiting for the sun to finally work its magic for months. And work its magic it did. A high for the day of 94 degrees was recorded at 4:23 p.m. at the Manteca Civic Center weather station.

“I love it when it’s warm outside, and it hasn’t been like this for so long,” she said. “This means it’s almost time to go out on the boat, almost time to get out onto the river and almost time to swim every day after school. I love it.”

But the unexpected heat spell isn’t supposed to last long. According to Accuweather, the mercury is expected to drop to 84 degrees today and then to 71 degrees by Sunday with a chance for showers.

That’s welcome news for Mason Borchardt, who spent his Thursday afternoon walking with friend Brian Rossino back to his house to lift weights. While it has gotten progressively warmer over the course of the last few days, Borchardt didn’t expect it to be over 90 degrees – especially this early in the year.

“I’m just more of a winter person,” Borchardt said while wiping sweat from his brow. “I like the snow and I don’t like being hot all of the time.”

His friend didn’t feel the same way.

“I love it when you get to go swimming every day,” Rossino said. “I’m sweating bullets right now, and we’re just going to end up sweating more after we lift weights, but it’s almost that time where we get to go swimming. That’ll be nice.”

And the local reservoirs that are feeding area rivers are in a much better position than they were at this time a year ago.

New Melones – which feeds the Stanislaus River – is currently at 82 percent of capacity compared to just 53 percent of capacity at this time last year.

Both of the reservoirs that feed New Melones are above their average at this point last year, and Lake Tulloch – the last hold point on the Stanislaus before it flows down through Oakdale, Riverbank, Modesto and Ripon – is 94 percent full.

“At least this year we’re not going to have to worry about a drought,” said outdoorsman Dave Byron. “The rivers are up right now and so are the lakes, but there’s still a lot of snowpack left. It’s going to be a big year for marinas on some of the lakes in Northern California.”