By: Hadassa Kalatizadeh
New Yorkers were at a loss as to how to spend Saturday, which was branded the hottest day since 2011. Sunday topped off the weekend with even hotter temperatures.
Official temperatures on Saturday matched the record of 96 degrees at Kennedy Airport. After combining humidity, however, the “heat index” reached 110 degrees, as per the National Weather Service. The streets of NYC were a lot hotter than the weather services reported though, thanks to the asphalt, concrete and glass buildings, which absorb heat from the sunlight, known as the “heat island” effect. Weather services place official thermometers in grassy areas, protected from direct sunlight, which underestimate the heat. As per the NY Post, on Saturday temperatures reached 110 degrees in Union Square. At a basketball court in Greenwich Village, the pavement reached a sweltering 122 degrees, and in a Brooklyn playground, the rubber flooring measured an extreme 155 degrees.
Sunday was a dreadful repeat with temperatures reaching 100 degrees, and a heat index topping Saturday’s to hit 113 degrees in Times Square, as reported by the NY Post’s unscientific titanic thermometer.
Big Apple residents did anything they could think of to keep cool. The pools and beaches were packed beyond capacity, leading to long lines and overcrowding. Hours of operations at city beaches and pools were extended, as well as hours for Spray showers and fountains at the city parks. Five extra New York Public Library branches were open for customers on Sunday, functioning as official city “Cooling Centers”. Brooklyn and Queens libraries followed suit at a number of branches. Lyft, the ride-sharing company, had a nice idea, offering two free rides going to a nearby Cooling Center, via a coupon on the app. The EMS logged more than 88 calls for heat exhaustion on Saturday alone.
New Yorkers who had air conditioning should consider themselves lucky. Some feared another loss of power, due to the heavy strain onto the grids. There were some patchy outages, but luckily they were limited. Con Edison reported that roughly 2,900 customers lost power. PSEG said there were about 2,000 outages in the Rockaways.
About 3,700 inmates at two of New York’s jails had no air conditioning. City Correction officials at the Brooklyn Detention Complex and at Rikers’ Otis Bantum Correctional Center said prisoners were given fans, ice, plenty of water and cool showers in the absence of air conditioning.
Adults and children alike across the five boroughs eagerly awaited forecasted showers and thunderstorms, ushering the break of the heatwave, and mid-80s temperatures expected for Monday.
