NYC heat wave to continue for fifth day after more records set

New York City’s heat wave will likely drag into a fifth day even though temperatures won’t hit the 38-degree-celsius-plus levels that have baked much of the mid-Atlantic and East Coast for the past two days, forecasters said.

The high in Central Park today is expected to reach into the low 30s Celsius, said Phil Bachmann, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Upton, New York.

“I guess you could say it is some kind of break, but it is still warm,” Bachmann said by telephone. “It is still a heat wave and it looks to continue into the weekend.”

New York broke daily temperature records and reached above 38 degrees celsius for two days in a row for the first time since 1999, according to weather service records. Central Park posted 38.3 degrees celsius yesterday and 39.4 degrees celsius the day before, the peak of the heat wave that began July 4.

 

The highs, well above New York’s normal of 28.3 degrees celsius, have boosted electricity demand across the US Northeast, slowed Amtrak and commuter trains and forced governments to open shelters for people seeking relief.

A heat wave is defined as at least three days in a row of temperatures of 32.2 degrees celsius or more, and temperatures in New York reached the upper 30s degree celsius on July 4. New York’s last week-long heat wave was in August 1998, while the longest was 12 days from August 24 to September 4, 1953, 1953, according to weather service records.

The longest stretch of consecutive 37.7 degrees celsius-plus days on record at Central Park came in 1993, when it rose from 100 on July 8 to 102 on July 10.

Baltimore and Washington also set new high temperature records this week. Baltimore hit 38.3 degrees celsius yesterday, breaking an old daily mark of 37.2 degrees celsius set in 1900, said Stephen Konarik, a weather service meteorologist in Sterling, Virginia.