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Heat Wave Enters Second Day With Temps Soaring to 93 Degrees

By DNAinfo Staff | July 16, 2013 8:25am | Updated on July 16, 2013 5:21pm

 New Yorkers Headed To The Beach Amidst The Current Heave-Wave
New Yorkers Head To The Beach
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NEW YORK CITY — It's hot. It's humid. And it's only day two in this week-long scorcher.

New Yorkers around the city suffered sweltering temperatures Tuesday as thermostats hit 93 degrees but humidity made it feel around 95, according to the National Weather Service.

"It feels like we're in an oven or something," said Elisabeth Hamstad, 50, a tourist from Norway who spent Tuesday bike riding in Central Park. 

The heat even grounded a window washer at the Time Warner Center.

"Normally, I work on the scaffold, but the top is too hot," said Tony Beltre, 45. "The weather dries out the water in a few minutes wherever you put it."

A heat advisory is in effect until Wednesday evening.

 The heatwave continued to strike New York Tuesday, as temperatures were expected to rise to 96 degrees.
Heatwave Continues
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"Oppressive heat and humidity will continue through at least Friday," according to the Weather Service.

VISIT OUR WEATHER PAGE FOR MORE INFO

The heat had already taken its toll Tuesday, when a City Council intern collapsed at the end of a 30-minute outdoor press conference with Council Speaker Christine Quinn about 11:45 a.m.  Witnesses said it took emergency responders a half hour to get to the scene.

Earlier in the morning, the Fire Department reported that they responded to 41 calls of heat related complaints over the past 24 hours, a department spokesman said.

The city's 400 cooling stations are slated to remain open through Thursday and can be located here.

Meanwhile, Con Edison had restored service to several hundred customers in Queens who had lost electricity because of downed power lines that sagged in the intense heat, according to the utility.

Only about 78 customers were still without power around 4 p.m. on Tuesday, a ConEd spokesman said.

This week's scorcher is caused by a sprawling high pressure system settled over the Ohio Valley that's moving hot air into the tri-state area and blocking any kind of relieving sea breeze, according to the weather service.

New York's hottest temperatures this week will not go past Monday's 97 degrees, which is about seven degrees hotter than Cairo, but 10 degrees cooler than California's Death Valley.

In Brooklyn, Greenpoint resident Chris Baker and his 8-month-old daughter were beating the heat by taking a dip at McCarren Park Pool and by sticking to heat-friendly foods.

"We eat watermelon from the fridge to stay cool," he said.

The city should cool off Sunday when a cold front is expected to descend from the north to unsettle the pressure system, according to the Weather Service.

With reporting by Jeanmarie Evelly, Aidan Gardiner, Trevor Kapp, Nikki Lohr and Alan Neuhauser.

For the latest on weather in your neighborhood, check out DNAinfo's weather page.