By Mariel S. Clark
DNAinfo News Editor
MANHATTAN — It wasn't your imagination — this summer was the hottest ever.
June, July and August, and their record-breaking, triple-digit heat waves, will go down in the books as the hottest summer on record for New York City, according to the National Weather Service.
The season saw an average temperature of 77.8 degrees in Central Park, which beat out the old record of 77.3 set in 1966, the NWS reported.
"It's crazy hot," said shirtless Harlem resident Kareem Brown, 25, as he walked home from the pool during a hot July day. "This is the worst summer I've seen in New York.
More than a third of the summer's days saw temperatures soar to 90 degrees or above and the thermometer hit triple-digits twice in July – one of the hottest months ever on record.
The heat was responsible for five deaths in the city as New Yorkers struggled to say cool by blasting air conditioners and sucking up record amounts of electricity.
September wasn't off to a much better start on Wednesday as temperatures were expected to climb to the record of 97 degrees, according to forecasters.
