Weather Journal: City Continues to Swelter

Wed, July 4, 05:03pm

Written By: Eric Holthaus

Published By: WSJ

A girl plays with a sprinkler in Central Park. The high temperatures are going to remain for four more days.

Extreme heat is not going away anytime soon as the city's thermostat continues to be set to "broil."

The Independence Day heat index peaked at exactly 100 degrees on the shores of the Hudson River, just before fireworks lit up the evening sky. Seven in a row and 10 of the last 15 days have featured temperatures at or above 88 in Central Park, with heat indexes regularly in the mid-90s or higher. That's remarkable because the average high for this time of year is only in the low 80s. It'll be at least four more days before the city will get a meaningful break from the heat.

On Thursday and Friday, while the humidity will take a bit of a breather, temperatures will remain in the 90s across most of Greater New York. The showers and thunderstorms that contributed to Monday's tragic I-95 tour bus accident in Westchester County should continue to move out of the area.

Saturday may prove to be the hottest day of the year so far.

With the forecast high in Newark of exactly 100, the city could top June 21st's 99 degree reading as the hottest spot in the tri-state so far in 2012. The temperature has only breached the triple digit mark in Central Park on 59 occasions since 1870, a quarter of which have occurred since 1990 - an impact of the continually warming climate.

The ongoing heat is reminiscent of the two-months-ahead-of-schedule warmth back in March, in which several parts of the tri-state reached 80 degrees. In some ways, the current heatwave is even more impressive, with more than 6% of the country's longest-running weather stations setting new all-time highs in the last week. One leading meteorologist from the Weather Underground (which was recently acquired by the Weather Channel) called the recent heat wave "one of the greatest in recorded history", for the fact that August heat records were being broken in June. Believe it or not, despite breaking more than a dozen temperature records ourselves since mid-June, Greater New York has stayed on the periphery of this heat, the most intense of which has been centered in the drought-ravaged regions of the Midwest and Ohio Valley.

Thursday's Greater New York forecast roundup:

WSJ Headquarters in Manhattan:

Actual High: 90; High feels like: 96

Actual Low: 71; Low feels like: 73

Weather: Heat continues to build

Brooklyn: 92/71

We welcome thoughtful comments from readers. Please comply with our guidelines. Our blogs do not require the use of your real name.

Read more: http://blogs.wsj.com/metropolis/2012/07/04/weather-journal-city-continues-to-swelter/?mod=WSJBlog