Whether you're putting down pavement, picking some peaches, putting for par or pausing on your porch, you have to agree that this weather is ... well, it's pretty near perfect.

Of course, some like it hot. But for those who prefer a milder summer with cooler evenings, you can't ask for much more than what Western Pennsylvania has been seeing lately.

Last night, in fact, weather forecasters were expecting low temperatures around 50 degrees, busting past the record low of 52 degrees set back in 1888, when weather forecasts depended more on barn-top vanes and aching body parts.

"The summer started out pretty close to normal," said Shawn Smith, a meteorologist with AccuWeather in State College. "But July has been averaging four degrees below normal."

The normal high for a July day in this part of the country, Mr. Smith said, is about 82 or 83 degrees. In the first two weeks of this month, there have been five days that topped out in the upper 70s. The high on July 2 was only 67, nine degrees below normal.

The cooler temperatures, he said, can be attributed to an upper-level trough in the jet stream, which allows a cool pocket. The air flow also is keeping ozone and pollution levels low.

"You get hot days when you have an upper ridge or high-pressure, but we haven't had that warming feature," Mr. Smith said. "Texas, for example, is seeing that, so they're having temperatures over 100 degrees."

The lows for Western Pennsylvania this time of year average around 61 or 62. But as anyone who has been sleeping with the windows open can tell you, most of the lows lately have been in the middle to upper 50s.

Carl Pia, general manger of Quicksilver Golf Club, in Midway, is one of those who don't mind the break from the heat.

"The cooler temperatures don't impact our business. Not like rain does," Mr. Pia said. "But the best part about having the cooler summer is that [the course is] much less susceptible to diseases. High humidity and heat can be really detrimental to delicate grass on the greens. The cooler, less humid days are ideal.

"The golfers still come out no matter what the temperature. But they probably prefer it a little cooler."

As do the men and women working outdoors for a living.

George Matta, director of community relations for the city's new Rivers Casino, said the cool, dry weather has helped move construction on schedule. Rain, he said, delays construction. Crews can't put in cement sidewalks, pave parking lots or lay sod, just when the casino is being prepared for its debut next month.

"We have a great variety of plants planted, trees, grass," Mr. Matta said of the landscaping. "It's a wide mix and extremely varied. And it's much easier to get that going when you don't have record highs or days and days of rain."

Pennsylvania Department of Transportation District 11 spokesman Jim Struzzi said road crews are right on schedule, doing more work than they've done in years.

"The economic recovery money has helped us increase our workload by 25 percent as far as major capital projects," he said. "Past years, we've been averaging about $300 million in construction projects. This year we're up around $400 million."

Workers can be seen wiping away sweat and dust, day and night, in the West End Circle, on the Parkway East, the 22-30-60 interchange in Robinson, the Etna interchange on 28 northbound, and the Parkway North.

Sonny Janoski, 72, owner of Janoski Farms in Clinton, mused on the conditions while sitting on the gate of a pickup truck last night at the farmers market outside Bridgeville. He's seen all the highs and lows a farmer can imagine.

"It's been a little bit cooler, but it's been fairly good," he said. "Right now, we're in a dry spell. We missed all that rain over the weekend. They said it was supposed to come through here, but we didn't get no rain out of that."

Cooler temperatures, he said, don't impact the farm industry much, and the crops are coming along on time.

"It delays the corn from ripening a little bit. A day or so," he said. "But I can't complain at all. It's growing season and harvest time. A little cooler temperatures, [the pickers] appreciate it. At 6 in the morning, with the dew, it can be cool.

"We could use some rain. We had some hard rain, but most of it ran off. And it's been hit-and-miss. Some farms get it and some don't. We need a good soaking rain."

The only trouble spot Mr. Janoski has seen, he said, was a cold spell in January.

"We lost about a third of our peach crop to a winter freeze," he said. "But [the remaining] two-thirds [of the crop] is just starting to ripen. It's better than nothing."

Forecasters predict the cooler temperatures will last through today and into tomorrow, when warm, humid weather should arrive with a storm front. But even then, the temperatures should stay around normal.