Tri-State Area Residents Fight To Stay Cool As Blazing Heat Returns
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- The air was thick and blazing hot on Thursday, and the heat will not be going anywhere for a while despite a round of storms expected in the evening.
CBS2's Lonnie Quinn reported as of 5 p.m., it was still 89 degrees in Central Park, but the heat index made it feel like 98 degrees.
The heat index also made it feel like 98 in Babylon; White Plains; and Greenwich, Connecticut, and 102 in Bellmore, New Jersey.
While storms are expected and rain was already falling in some areas late Thursday afternoon, the heat is here to stay.
A heat advisory is in effect until 8 p.m. Saturday, and heat indices are expected to reach the upper 90s to 105 degrees.
As CBS2's Vanessa Murdock reported, people struggled throughout the day to stay cool as they braved the heat. It was nearly 94 degrees outside the 72nd Street No. 1, 2 and 3 train station Thursday afternoon, and Murdock asked passersby to describe the conditions without simply saying "hot" or "humid."
"I feel like I'm walking in a hot bath -- an unpleasant hot bath," said Tatyana Kurbatoff of Park Slope, Brooklyn.
"The heat just hits you – abruptly," said Claire Fountain of the Upper West Side.
"It feels like being in an oven or being in a sauna," another woman added.
Robyn R. Simonds of the Lower East Side said she felt like a marshmallow just roasted over the fire.
"Mushy and brown at the edges; a little crispy," she said.
For a man named Neil, the high heat and excessive humidity made a five-minute walk feel like a two hour journey on Thursday.
"Very draining and it's hard to breathe," he said.
And Suzanne Reisman of the Upper West Side called conditions Thursday "offensively hot – it offends my sensibilities that it is this hot."
Still, Reisman said she is doing her best to be a considerate New Yorker and not overpower the grid.
"Let's just the say the air is on. I just don't have the lights on," she said.
At Overpeck Park in Bergen County, New Jersey, it was game on the turf for the Gotcha Academy. The soccer crew said us they had been out on the turf for two hours, and it was not easy.
"It's hard conditions," said soccer player Ilya Udalov of Nutley, New Jersey.
With sweat spilling off his forehead, Tafari Williams admitted that being in good shape did not matter Thursday. He was winded after a simple sprint.
"It is really hot," said Williams, of Lodi, New Jersey. "All our feet are burning right now."
They were playing smart soccer, though, to make sure everyone walks off the field feeling OK.
"There's a water fountain over there. We just like, keep refilling our bottles every ten minutes," said Haddy Abdelhady of Nutley.
"Keep going in the shade, you know, rest every, you know, like 30 minutes or so," Udalov added.
Some just take it easy period, like Ida Imbrogo, who was visiting from Florida. She was basking in the shade and enjoying the breeze along the shore of Overpeck Creek.
"The weather's beautiful," she said. "I can't complain compared to Florida weather."
Imbrogo is one of the few, perhaps the only person, who had nothing negative to say about the sultry conditions on Thursday.
"Too hot for summer," said Eitan Weinberg, 12.
And too hot for summer it shall remain. The temperatures are not expected to break until the middle of next week, Quinn reported.
