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Yesterday saw a weather double-triple. High temperatures reached 100 degrees at LaGuardia and Newark airports, both records. JFK also set a record high, albeit only 97 degrees. The cool spot was Central Park as the thermometer at Belvedere Castle only got up to 95. Hot as it was yesterday, today looks to be a little bit warmer. Yes, warmer. It barely cooled off last night –this morning's low in Central Park was 87– so it won't take much heating to surpass yesterday's temperatures. We are likely to score a quadruple-triple, with all four official local observation spots reaching the century mark. It should be hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk. If you decide to make a sidewalk omelet, take a picture and submit it to Gothamist Contribute.
In addition to the heat we're having an Ozone Action Day. Too much ground-level ozone and too many particles are making the air unhealthy to breathe, especially for the elderly, small children, and people with heart or lung disease. If you don't fit in one of those categories you’re not off the hook. Ozone is nasty to anyone who exerts themselves outside. During physical activity ozone penetrates deep into your lungs, where it is more injurious. The best advice is to slow down and stay inside as much as possible.
There's a slight, but growing, chance of showers and thundershowers this afternoon through tomorrow night. Little relief from the high temperatures is in store until a cold front passes. That welcome event looks like it will happen sometime Thursday night. Friday should be much cooler with a high of only 83.
The main reason Central Park was the city's cool spot yesterday is the park's vegetation. Streets, sidewalks, brick and concrete all absorb more energy from the sun and hold onto that energy much longer than plants and soil. Columbia University and NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies scientists have compared satellite imagery of the city's temperature and vegetation distribution to see if planting vegetation on rooftops could cool the city down. The correlation between temperature and vegetation is striking. The warmest places are the most urban, while the coolest are the most vegetated.
Satellite map of New York City temperatures on 14 August 2002 from the NASA Earth Observatory.
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Dude, it was definitely hotter than that yesterday. I went out and bought a cheap-o thermometer in Chelsea and just walked around the block with it a little and it went up to about 103!
I just went outside to get lunch (around the citicorp building) and it was just one of the most brutal days I could think of in recent years.
Were you standing in the sun? Temperature is usually recorded in the shade which makes a difference.
Also, I am personally disgusted by the building owners who are blasting ac onto the open street. There is a parking garage on 59th st between Madison and 5th that is pumping so much ac onto the street that the temperature change is actually shocking when you go by it on a bicycle. Especially in light of what happened in Queens, you would think people wouldn't be so stupid about energy waste.
Never be surprised by the stupidity of people. It's sad, but you're less apt to be disappointed that way.
i found the heat quite enjoyable, actually, kind of like a sauna.
did anyone read the new yorker's 3 part series on global warming? computer models predict north america will turn into a desert at the rate we are going. hope everyone with kids will prepare them to inherit a f*cked up earth!
Working at home here and have my AC cranked to the coolest temp/highest fan setting, and my Vornado cranked to high.
Even though avg temps are increasing, we've had 100 degree temps before.
Suck it up Girlie-Men
Not just vegetation on rooftops. Just plain old planting trees along every city street. It's a shame such a simple project could not be implemented by the City, the results which would benefit New Yorkers for generations to come. I guess it's just not a glamorous-enough idea for the suits down in City Hall.
But the concrete and asphalt also absorb the heat and reflect it back, making the actual "felt" temperature higher, doesn't it? You're getting the weather we had last week, but I'd rather suffer triple digits in a smaller city that in NYC!
Green Roofs are such an awesome idea. They absorb CO2, too.
I second being disgusted by shops with the A/C cranking and the door wide open.
Ethan - The shade felt about 10deg cooler than in the open with the sun beating down on my head. The air was none too pleasant to breathe either and went down my lungs like a thick smoothie of pollution. Blech.
the 51st 6 line station has to be at least over 150 degrees.
Steve, I always wonder how the guys in the newstands in that station work. It's an oven down there and the breeze from the train passing by just blows scorching hot air on your skin creating what I like to call the "Raiders of the Lost Ark" face melt.