There have been diaries posted here about the unprecedented heat waves engulfing the Midwest and West. I've read posts from many sweltering Kossacks, telling lurid tales about 115-120 degree temperatures in suburban LA, 100+ readings in Portland, 100 in Seattle, 115+ in North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, and, Kansas. Just today we saw the thermometer hit 100 in Minneapolis, Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City, and other Midwestern locales. The Midwest heat wave and severe weather left a large part of St. Louis powerless, and many parts of the Gateway to the West are still blacked out.
The Northeast, barring a couple of hot days in July which melted the tracks of the LIRR and put 25,000 out of power in Queens, avoided the vast majority of this disturbing weather.
Unfortunately, it's our turn now.
In Vestal, a college town in upstate New York, the forecast high temperature tomorrow is 96 degrees. My family lives downstate in Orange and Rockland counties, where it is always at least five to ten degrees warmer than the Southern Tier.
The projected high in Central Park is 99 degrees, but the thermometer in the Park lies in the SHADE, which is always five or so degrees cooler than the sunlight. When you're walking down Fifth Avenue tomorrow, it won't be 99; it'll be 104, and if you factor in the humidity, it'll feel like 115 degrees at the minimum. If you live in Newark (NJ), tack on another three to five degrees. We're talking about INSANE heat, the likes of which can kill an elderly person if he/she is exposed for any extended period of time.
Philadelphia's in virtually the same boat as New York, but probably closer to Newark in terms of the heat. They're forecasting a high of 99 degrees in Philly as well, but I expect to see 103 before the day is out from the city that booed Santa Claus and shares a love-hate relationship with their Eagles.
For those who live in the Beltway, the forecasters at the Weather Channel actually have the guts to predict a high temperature over 100 (101 in fact). Now Washington is hotter than New York or Philly, but even the folks in Congress and the Administration will be sweating in more ways than one.
And for those folks going out for a crabcake in Baltimore's Inner Harbor, take a few bottles of water and apply that sunscreen on thick, because you've got a high of 101 tomorrow, and that's probably a conservative estimate.
So for my fellow citizens in the Northeast, prepare yourselves well. Call up your grandparents and other elderly folks and make sure they're OK.
Many citizens of the Northeast who didn't believe in global warming before will start to change their minds after the next three days we're about to see.