The triple-digit scorcher that taxed the electrical grid and made life uncomfortable on the East Coast is expected to simmer down somewhat today, but forecasters said states in the mid-Atlantic and Southeast will still be feeling the heat wave.
National Weather Service meteorologist Joe Pollina said temperatures will begin to ease today but will remain in the 90s.
“Monday is really when we see cooler air coming,” he said, with forecast temperatures sinking to the low to mid-80s.
Brutal heat and humidity continued throughout Shabbos.
Temperatures reached 105 degrees in Atlantic City, N.J.; 104 in Trenton, N.J.; 103 in Norfolk, Va.; 102 in Baltimore, Newark, N.J., and at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and New York’s Kennedy Airport; and 101 in Philadelphia. But humidity made it feel hotter most places across the region.
The bubble of hot air developed over the Midwest earlier this week and has caused more than a dozen deaths as it moved eastward. As of Shabbos, the medical examiner’s office in Chicago listed heat stress or heat stroke as the causes of death for eight people.
About 10,000 customers remained without power in New York City and its suburbs, and about 9,000 in New Jersey, after parts of the region’s electrical network failed. Power utility Con Edison said it was reducing the voltage in 69 other New York neighborhoods to ease the load caused by thousands of air conditioners.
City officials said water usage had soared as New Yorkers tried to keep cool. On Shabbos, it hovered around 1.5 billion gallons a day, about 50 percent higher than normal, said Environmental Protection Commissioner Cas Holloway.
{NJ.com/Matzav.com Newscenter}
