CLAIRE C. LAURENCE/Arizona Daily Wildcat Mechanical engineering graduate student and Cactus Grill employee Prasanna Adavi services the head of a long line of thirsty students trying to beat the heat with a cool smoothie.

Students might find themselves in the middle of their midterms, but they're sweating about more than their exams.

Yesterday, the Old Pueblo tied its 1909 record of 96 degrees as it continued to take a beating from a heat wave, which has suffocated the Southwest.

Pamela Wollack, a meteorologist intern at Tucson's National Weather Service Forecast Office, said the heat wave is a result of a high pressure system, drawing warmer temperatures away from the Pacific Ocean and into southern Arizona.

Most students took refuge in the shade yesterday afternoon as they waited for their rides to pick them up, or as they made phone calls.

Well, most of them.

Cat Climaco, an art education sophomore, and Zaliah Zalkind, a human rights and sustainable development junior, laid on their backs on the grass near the Science and Engineering Library, talking.

The shadow from the library's roof separated the two friends: Climaco basked in sunlight, while Zalkind took in the darker pleasures of the shade.

"I love it," said Climaco, who is from Ohio. "I've been riding my bike. It's nice."

Zalkind had a different perspective.

"This summer is the first summer · we've stepped off the cliff of global warming," he said.

He said the heat has contributed to the death of his garden, in which only one plant is left alive.

Though plants are dying and the planet seems to be baking, the heat wave has had a positive effect. It's encouraging some students to be more studious.

"I've been studying like a madman. Studying inside," Zalkind said.

Renewable natural resources graduate student Mary Hershdorfer said she also stays inside more.

"I'm working more at school than at home because there's air conditioning here," Hershdorfer said.

She said the heat has made swimming more appealing, and that she goes to the pool every day.

When it comes to water, UA spokeswoman Sharon Kha said students should drink plenty of it and be careful not to dehydrate.