/
With summer in full swing, people are heading outdoors to soak up the sun or doing their best to stay cool
By Henry Austin and Matthew DeLuca, NBC News
A blistering heat wave that has sent temperatures soaring across the country this week seemed likely to come to stormy end, even as highs approached 100 in New York on Friday.
Forecasters said that temperatures in the high 90s were expected in Boston and Philadelphia as well, with the heat index ? the ?feels like? effect fed by humidity ? pushing 110.
?The cities have excessive heat warnings in effect? Some people don?t have air conditioning, so that?s going to be an issue especially for the elderly and younger children as well," said Michael Palmer, meteorologist at the?Weather Channel. "We could see a few records in spots.
He said of the conditions, "They are dangerous."
Relief is in sight, with cool breezes from the north expected to blast the dome of high pressure which parked itself over the Ohio Valley, causing the near-record highs. ?
But the break will come at a price as severe thunderstorms and hail sweep in late on Friday. The National Weather Service said the storms could break over areas of the Midwest, Great Lakes region, New York state and parts of New England on Friday afternoon and into the evening, bringing strong winds.
?We?ll see a line of storms that will produce some winds that could gust at least 60 mph, we could see some golf ball-size hail in spots,? said Palmer.
The worst of the storms, including damaging straight-line winds, hail, and perhaps a tornado, will come in Michigan, eastern Wisconsin, northeast Illinois, far northern Indiana and Upstate New York. ?
Temperatures at Newark Liberty Airport in New Jersey were recorded at 98 degrees at 1 p.m. local time on Friday, as the mercury hit 93 in Central Park. John F. Kennedy Airport in Queens, New York, recorded temperatures of 100 degrees on Thursday, beating out the previous record set for that date a year ago, and on Friday the heat index there reached 108.
Electricity usage soared to an all-time high in New York City as the work week closed out, provider Con Edison announced, as service hit a peak of 13,214 megawatts around 2 p.m. local time. The previous record was 13,189 megawatts on July 22, 2011, according to the company.
Even inside, some people could not find relief.
?It?s too hot,? Jamal Al-Onofi, a store owner in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, told NBC New York. ?It?s crazy in here, it feels like more than 100 degrees.?
Elsewhere in the sweat-stained metropolis, workers at a New York McDonald?s walked off the job after the air-conditioning went out for several hours and one employee fainted, according to NBC New York. Paramedics responded to a call for an unconscious person at the fast-food joint, the fire department confirmed.
The extreme heat has already claimed the life of a 57-year-old man in Philadelphia, city officials told NBC Philadelphia there. Authorities say the man, who had an air conditioner that was not operating, died from chronic obstructive lung disease and heat exposure. Temperatures reached 98 in Philadelphia on Thursday; the heat index was 106.
Christopher J. Todd, 30, of Rochester, N.Y., also died while hiking in the White Mountains, officials at The New Hampshire Fish and Game Department?said Thursday. His friends tried to revive him until the emergency services arrived, but he passed away on the trail.?
The department said the cause of death has not yet been determined, but cautioned hikers to stay well hydrated while outdoors.
The heat wave has flummoxed meteorologists, because it has moved backward across America, something that rarely happens.
Normally U.S. weather systems move west to east. The western Atlantic high pressure system behind the hot dry weather started moving east to west last week and by Tuesday was centered over lower Michigan, said Jon Gottschalck, the operations chief at the National Weather Service's prediction branch.
"It's definitely unusual and going the wrong way," Gottschalck said Thursday. "This is pretty rare."
The weather service issued heat advisories and warnings Thursday for parts of 23 states. More than 141 million people live in those areas.
In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo urged people to cut back their electricity usage to take pressure off the state's power grid and help prevent outages or brownouts, NBC New York reported.
New York's power grid operator said they expected a record set in 2006 would be broken with a peak in electricity usage.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Related:
This story was originally published on Fri Jul 19, 2013 6:54 AM EDT
Philadelphia building collapse Debbie Rowe Bruins score State of Decay michelle obama ryan braun florida lottery
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.