New York City is suffering from a heat wave. Temperatures soared to 103 degrees in Central Park last Tuesday. Yes, that's hot, but on July 9th, 1936, back when very few people had access to air conditioning, Central Park saw 106 degrees -the hottest temperature ever recorded for the city! Here's how the New York Times described it:
Melted dentures? That's hot! Link
“In the great shopping districts in the Thirties, the pavements became so soft in late afternoon that the crosswalks were dotted with rubber heels that were caught in the asphalt and tar as women passed by. ...In Syracuse, on one of the main streets, a housewife fried an egg on the pavement; at Perry, N.Y., an absent-minded man who left his false teeth on the window sill returned within an hour to find them melted away.
Melted dentures? That's hot! Link
However, it's 2010 and we have air conditioning. I cannot imagine the misery of that heat in a city without AC in 1936.
@WordyGrrl: At a few days of these temperatures the grid starts to overload, then since we aren't used to coping we cope worse. That's just my opinion but.
Phoenix? All I remember was how cold it was.
It hit about 115 the other day, and that's not the extent of the heat, it's not even mid-July yet.
Visit a cooled (because climatised to keep all those artworks in good shape) museum!
:-D
Their sidewalks must have been made of softer stuff back then. I know it's more humid out East than it is here, but still...
Anny-Bed sheets, the whole world is never all hot nor all cold. In fact until just this weekend southern California temperatures have been unseasonably cool for the start of summer.
Hope the New Yorkers are coping with the heat OK.
Also, when they measured 103 degrees in Central Park, I reckon it must have been hotter in the streets, no? With all the black asphalt absorbing (and bouncing back) heat? It sure felt like it.
I commiserated with a woman at a coffee cart, who said that she had never experienced anything quite as miserable where she was from. Which was AFRICA. Haha!