SWEAT-ER WEATHER
Get set for temps topping 100°
The Big Apple will bake this weekend as a heat wave sends the mercury soaring past 100 degrees — with humidity making it feel even worse, forecasters say.
The sweltering heat and humidity will first hit on Wednesday, before a late-day cooldown that will continue into Thursday as the remnants of Tropical Storm Barry bring thunderstorms to the region, AccuWeather senior meteorologist Tom Kines said. Wednesday will start out at around 88 to 94, giving way to temperatures in the low to mid-80s on Thursday.
But Mother Nature will crank up the heat with a vengeance on Friday, with temperatures expected to hit as high as 96 degrees — although it will feel more like 103, according to early predictions.
Saturday will be the real scorcher, with temps at 95 to 101 degrees, with the heat index making it feel like 105. Sunday will be a “cool” 93 degrees, with a real feel of 104, AccuWeather predicts.
Based on numbers alone, Saturday looks to be the worst — but all three days will be extremely uncomfortable, according to Kines.
“It wouldn’t surprise me if Sunday was just as nasty, and Friday’s no picnic either,” he said.
“It’s going to be pretty stifling,” he added. “And there’s probably going to be one or two nights, at least in the city, where temps don’t get down below 80.”
But the hot spell is more or less par for the course this time of year, he said.
“I don’t think there’s anything unusual about it,” Kines said. “We get these spells in the summer. It happens, but it is going to be oppressive out there. It is a big deal.”
The last heat wave roasted the Big Apple from June 30 to July 3 last year, according to Kines.
The extreme temperatures bring the threat of another blackout, after outages struck parts of Manhattan for five hours Saturday evening, leaving some 73,000 residents without power at its height.
“We expect that there could be service outages — those things happen during heat waves,” Con Edison spokesman Mike Clendenin said Monday.
Later in the day, Con Ed backtracked and blamed a fire that hit a 13,000-volt power cable at West End Avenue and West 64th Street for triggering Saturday’s blackout. The utility had earlier flatly denied that was the cause.
Kines urged New Yorkers to drink plenty of water, wear light clothing and stay in air-conditioning if possible over the weekend.