By KEN BELSON
For working stiffs, the fun in the sun ended Monday. After two days of toying with the stifling weather in shorts and T-shirts, the record-high temperatures in the New York region made the most mundane chores a challenge.
The early-season swelter created an array of problems, from power failures to delays on several subway lines. Schools sent students home early, and officials at Yankee Stadium handed out bottles of water to fans during an afternoon game against the Kansas City Royals.
The technicalities of a high pressure center over Bermuda that funneled hot air from the south was lost on many New Yorkers who were still fishing their short-sleeve shirts and khakis out of the closet.
“Basically, it’s an early-season heat wave typical for later in the summer,” said Matt Sardi, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service on Long Island.
The temperature hit 99 degrees at La Guardia Airport, 4 degrees higher than the previous high set on June 9, 1984; it was 99 degrees at Newark Liberty Airport, tying a record set in 1933. In Central Park, the high temperature was 96, one degree shy of the record. Temperatures in Islip, on Long Island, and Bridgeport in Connecticut, easily broke previous records.
Tuesday was not likely to offer any respite from the 90-degree heat, according to the National Weather Service, adding that temperatures would drop back into the 80s by Wednesday.
Like many power companies in the area, Consolidated Edison played whack-a-mole to keep up with power failures, though it said it had plenty of slack capacity.
Electrical failures halted trains in Brooklyn. The company urged customers in Yorkville and East Harlem to conserve power after 4 of the 29 circuits that feed the area went out. The company said that it hoped to have all of them working by Tuesday morning.
In Westchester, about 1,400 customers in Rye and Port Chester were without power at dinner time Monday. And in northern New Jersey, a failed breaker left nearly 75,000 customers of Public Service Electric and Gas without power much of the afternoon and into the evening.
People did what they could to escape the heat, going to the movies or to centers set up by the city’s Office of Emergency Management. But most of them simply had to deal.
Not Too Cool for School
At Central Park East High School, at Madison Avenue at 106th Street, Isaac Paniagua, 15, a freshman, said he feared for his grade on an English test.
“I had to read a simple story five times because the heat was too much,” he said. “The heat makes people behave not normal.”
Robert Carson, a junior, said the sweating got so bad during gym class that “I think I lost a lot of weight.” To make matters worse, it was not just students who suffered as the temperatures climbed. As Robert put it: “All the teachers are drenched.”
While public schools built in the last 20 years have central air conditioning, many classrooms in older buildings do not even have air conditioner units, leaving less fortunate students and teachers to debating what felt worse, being inside or out.
“The D.O.E. recognizes that today’s unseasonable weather creates uncomfortable conditions in our schools and we commend our principals for taking appropriate steps to ensure the safety of our students and teachers,” Debra Wexler, a spokeswoman for the city’s Education Department, said in a statement.
Still, Ms. Wexler said that the city had “not traditionally closed schools or dismissed students early” because of hot weather, and was “not planning to do so” on Tuesday.
But as temperatures climbed on Monday, a number of schools districts in Connecticut and New Jersey thought otherwise. Tom Murphy, a spokesman for the Connecticut Education Department, said that about half of the state’s 166 districts had dismissed their students early and would probably do so again if the heat persisted.
In New York City, some principals have opted for new air conditioners, and the electrical wiring to operate them, over other expenditures.
Felix Gil, the principal at P.S. 20 on the Lower East Side, said that the school had spent close to $60,000 on air conditioners and re-wiring in the past two years.
Mr. Gil called the money “well spent,” particularly on a day like Monday, when recess was held in a cool cafeteria.
At P.S. 29 in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, the classrooms are air-conditioned, but the auditorium is not. And that is where children usually spend recess when the weather is bad. So on Monday, as public officials urged New Yorkers to take refuge indoors, P.S. 29’s children spent recess outside, where they sat in the shade sipping cups of water provided by school administrators.
ELISSA GOOTMAN
Hot, but Not Bombay Hot
There is hot and then there are the narrow kiosks in New York’s subway stations.
For the people who sell newspapers and candy underground, the punishing heat made their sometimes uncomfortable jobs unbearable. Air conditioners are rare, so many workers get by with fans that do little more than circulate the steamy station air.
“Something is better than nothing,” said Praful Dholakia, 60, who stood next to a small, grime-filled fan in his kiosk at the 49th Street Station on the R line. “I’m Indian, so I can handle it. Bombay is much hotter.”
At least by the standards of the New York City subway system, where it is typically five degrees warmer than the outdoors on hot days, Mr. Dholakia was pretty comfortable. His kiosk was set back from the platform, and wisps of the air conditioning from the Lehman Brothers building above could be felt downstairs.
But the extension cord Mr. Dholakia was using to power the fan was a no-no, said Toolsieram Nohar, who works for Greystone Corporate Realty Services, which manages the kiosks for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
“He can trip, so an extension cord is no good,” said Mr. Nohar, who happened to stop on his regular rounds.
Mr. Nohar is a reluctant enforcer, particularly when it comes to fans on a hot day. In fact, he gets on well with the kiosk workers, who shake his hand, exchange pleasantries and take suggestions.
But his main job is to ensure that the kiosks conform to the rules of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
A small fan blowing in the kiosk on the 7 line platform at Grand Central Terminal was working O.K., but it was no match for the trains, whose air conditioning units belch out waves of heat.
“When there are two trains in the station, it gets hot,” said Mohammed M. Khan, 52, who appeared more concerned with finding a spot for the 16 cases of soda, water and snacks that had just been delivered.
KEN BELSON
Baking in the Bronx
At Yankee Stadium, the temperature rose steadily from 94 degrees at the time of the first pitch to 98 at the last out as the Yankees took on the Royals. Huge banks of seats in the upper deck and the field level boxes remained empty as the sun beat down on them without reprieve.
The Yankees’ starting pitcher, Mike Mussina, could not even remain in the dugout between innings. As soon as he retired the last batter in each of his eight innings, he would run back to the clubhouse to cool off.
The fans, who roasted in the sun for 2 hours 47 minutes, did not have that option. In the exposed bleachers, they sat on metal benches that spent all day absorbing the heat.
The Yankees set up stations throughout the concourses, offering free water, and fans crowded around them asking for ice and moistening towels. At $5 a glass, the lemonade also flowed freely.
“When we planned our trip, we thought New York would be in the high 70s, low 80s maybe,” said Melissa Prince, a tourist from Charlotte, N.C., sitting under her umbrella in the right-field bleachers. “But today it feels like we’re right back in Charlotte.” JOSHUA ROBINSON
Costly Power Failures
Scores of Con Edison workers in thick blue jumpsuits, hard hats and assorted gear worked furiously on Smith Street in Brooklyn to restore power to a section of Carroll Gardens after it went dark about 9 p.m. Sunday night.
Workers climbed in and out of manholes from Baltic to Dean Streets, drinking water by the gallon and trading precious spots under scaffolding, trees — anything that would provide relief.
By noon on Monday, many of the clothing stores, restaurants, pizzerias and bars had provisional power, but lights were still dim and air conditioning was scarce. The air along Smith Street, already hard to breathe because of the fleet of Con Edison trucks, worsened with the smell of rotting food that had been piling on the sidewalk all morning.
“You want to see spoilage? Here, I’ll show you,” said Spero Katehis, 52, who with Evan Stogianos, 24, owns the Carroll Garden’s Classic Diner on Smith Street.
He opened the sidewalk bulkhead to the restaurant’s basement, where trash bags were piled nearly to the top of the stairs. “That goes all the way back,” he said.
Inside, workers were cleaning out refrigerators and setting up the restaurant for the first moment that full power would be restored. But Mr. Katehis estimated that the power failure had already cost his business $20,000.
“I kept everyone here last night,” he said.
“You’re talking about payroll, you’re talking about food. I’ve got steaks, I’ve got fish, I’ve got pasta, I’ve got salads. Hopefully we can go after Con Edison for something.”
As he looked over his staff, Mr. Katehis joked with a waiter who had put on his tie, normally a part of the uniform. “Daniel, I see you putting that tie on and it makes me more hot,” he said. “Please, no tie. Today is a special day.”
DAVID GIAMBUSSO
Steamy Enough?
While the rest of the city was seeking relief, clients of a large Korean spa in Queens had other ideas.
“I know we’re in a heat wave, but somehow, this isn’t hot for me,” said Lyn Canuto, of Bayside, who was stretched out on a straw mat at Sauna Valley at Spa Castle in College Point, where the saunas look like big pizza ovens and feel almost as hot.
Ms. Canuto, who runs an accounting service, spent 20 minutes in the sauna, an ornate tile-covered affair with a stream running through it. A digital thermometer above the door read 192.
The coolest of the saunas is 135 degrees, but the temperatures of the others quickly go up from there.
Jennifer Chon, who handles media relations for the spa, which is owned by her father, the hot weather had done little to discourage customers from paying $30 to work up a good sweat.
“It’s a different kind of heat inside them because the air is pure and clean,” Ms. Chon said.
Ms. Canuto laughed when asked if stepping back outside to temperatures in the 90s was a snap after lounging in the 190s.
“I come to these saunas for heat,” she said. “When I leave, I’m home sitting in my air conditioning like everyone else.”
COREY KILGANNON
Ann Farmer, Jennifer 8. Lee and Mathew R. Warren contributed reporting.
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