New York City’s Central Park reached 100 degrees for the first time in more than 10 years, as a dangerous heat wave is forecast to keep the region sweltering through the July 4 holiday.
The temperature at the park climbed to a scorching 100 degrees Thursday afternoon — the first triple-digit reading at the famed Manhattan landmark since July 18, 2012, a day that tied for the city’s hottest since 1966, according to the National Weather Service and AccuWeather meteorologists.
Around the same point last year, Central Park topped out at 99 degrees.
With oppressive humidity making conditions feel close to 110 degrees, the brutal heat is expected to persist into Friday, when Central Park could again reach 100 degrees — potentially marking the first back-to-back triple-digit days there since July 2011, forecasters said.
New York City last endured consecutive 100-degree days on July 22 and 23, 2011, after also logging a two-day stretch of triple-digit heat in July 2010.
Central Park, often described as the city’s green oasis, has recorded three straight days at or above 100 degrees only twice — once in August 1948 and again in July 1993, meteorologists said.
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The city’s longest heat wave on record stretched for 12 punishing days, running from Aug. 24, 1953, through Sept. 4, 1953.
The extreme conditions are being driven by a hazardous heat dome parked over the East Coast and Midwest, which began sending temperatures into the upper 90s on Wednesday, with the most intense heat expected Thursday and Friday.
The unrelenting swelter is expected to ease slightly on Saturday with a high of 95, but conditions could spark heavy afternoon thunderstorms, with a 55% chance of rain, threatening the July 4 weekend.
Sunday would be the last day of the heatwave with highs of 90 degrees, with storms forecasted to bring temperatures back down to normal by Monday.
The National Weather Service issued an extreme heat watch from noon Wednesday through 9 p.m. Friday in New York City, the Lower Hudson Valley, Long Island, northern New Jersey and western Connecticut.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani has declared a heat emergency due to the weather and launched a cooling outreach program where LINK NYC kiosks will direct New Yorkers to the nearest cooling centers for relief.
“The single most important thing you can do in these temperatures is to stay indoors with air conditioning,” Mamdani said in a news conference.
“If you can avoid going outside during the hottest hours of the day, please do so.”
