SCORCHER TORTURE
113° 113 (you read that right!) in Times Sq.
TimTimes Square turned into the GGreat White-hot Way on SundSunday — as temps there soaresoared to 113 degrees. ThThe Post’s Big Thermometer regisregistered the blistering figure at araround 3 p.m. — before the citycity’s exhausted electrical grid heaved a heavy sigh and left more than 30,000 people withwithout power by 9 p.m. “LLatest from Con Ed for the 30K customers without powpower in Flatlands, Canarsie, MiMill Basin and Bergen BeBeach,” Mayor de Blasio twtweeted at 9:24 p.m. “Con Ed will start bringining customers back 500 at a time around midnight.”
Gov. Cuomo blasted the power company Sunday night, claiming it should have been more prepared for the staggering heat wave and calling for backup generators.
“We’ve been through this situation w ConEd time & again & they should have been better prepared—period,” Cuomo tweeted. “I am deploying 200 State Police, 100 generators & 50 Light Towers to assist with the 30K+ power outages in BK.”
The power grid stuttered as Big Apple residents consumed a record amount of electricity at one point Sunday afternoon, setting a new high hourly mark for weekend consumption, according to Con Ed.
During the 4 p.m.-5 p.m. hour, the utility was pumping out 12,048 megawatts of electricity, edging out a record spike of 11,855 megawatts set between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. Aug. 13, 2016, a utility spokesman said, adding that consumption routinely hits 13,000 megawatts on weekdays when Manhattan’s offices flicker to life.
The utility blamed the oppressive temperatures Sunday for overheating equipment that led to outages and said crews will be working overnight to restore power.
The good news is that the heat wave is sputtering out starting today, with high temperatures in the comfortable 80s right through this coming weekend, and nighttime readings in the refreshing 60s, according to AccuWeather.