“7 DIE IN AND NEAR CITY
New York Gasps in the Highest Temperature in Bureau’s History.
50 PERSONS PROSTRATED
Mercury in Times Square at 115 —Throngs Sleep in Streets, Parks and on Beaches.
NO RELIEF IS PROMISED
Searing Wave Sweeps Entire East—Cyclonic New England Storm Does Wide Damage.
New York and the East generally gasped in the highest temperatures in recorded weather history here yesterday as searing blasts of heat, borne out of the parched drought areas of the Middle West, con- verted city, town and country into one vast oven.
‘The official high reading in New York City of 102.3 was taken at 2:50 P. M., 415 feet above the sun- baked pavements and melting asphalt roadways, by Weather Bureau officials on the roof of the Whitehall Building and tempered by bay breezes.
But it did not tell the true story. The instrument for measuring the sun’s intensity set up in the Central Park Observatory by David R. Morris, meteorologist, gave a reading of 145 degrees at 12:40 P, M., while the reading in the shade was 106 degrees at 5 P. M.
115 in Times Square
In Times Square, where the western wind carried the heat against the faces of pedestrians, there were unofficial readings of 115 degrees, due to heat reflection from the sidewalks. In the canyons of the financial district men and: women. reported the heat waves visible”
TimesMachine: Friday July 10, 1936 – NYTimes.com
