Thursday the temperature in New York City hit the high 90s. The humidity soaked my shirt within a few minutes of exposure to the outside weather. I drank three large bottles of Perrier, ate a quarter of a watermelon, and downed about five iced beers in a vain attempt to keep up with my projectile sweating. It was almost as if my pores were spitting out fluid. Once home I took about five showers and remained cloistered in my air-conditioned apartment.
I survived the night.
Friday the weathermen were predicting heat nearing 100.
The record for New York City was 105 and the hottest temperature ever recorded for the NY State was in Troy on July 22, 1926, when the thermometer hit 108.
Today the temperature has slacked off and I said that the heat wasn't as bad as the previous day. My friends said my brain was heat-addled. They weren't far from the truth.
The present heat wave will continue throughout the weekend, although Sunday evening is predicted to be the end.
This morning I even went out to shoot hoops at the park on DeKalb.
My friends once more accused me of suffering from heat madness, but this recent spike in the temperature is nothing to comparison to the grasp of the heat dome over Oklahoma and Kansas. A month of unrelenting 90+ temperature, but even that streak pales in regards to the longest heat wave in modern history.
5 months of 100+ Marble Bar, Australia during the winter of 1924.
America's worst heat wave occurred in the Dust Bowl of 1936.
101+ for over 100 days in Yuma, Arizona.
Back then hot was hot. There was no AC. Ice melted faster than butter on the red-hot frying pan.
98 was hot for New York City.
People complained so much that their wind blew away the heat.
Hot air versus hot air.
New Yorkers are # 1.
It's certainnly not Kansas.
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