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CBS News
5 days ago
- Climate
- CBS News
NYC hits 1st heat wave of the season after 3 days above 90 degrees
First Alert Weather Day: One more day in the 90s First Alert Weather Day: One more day in the 90s First Alert Weather Day: One more day in the 90s It's officially the first heat wave of the season in New York City and the nearby suburbs. High temperatures hit the 90s Wednesday, for a third day in a row. It's a First Alert Weather Day, with the following advisories in effect: CBS News New York Excessive heat warning across interior and central New Jersey due to peak heat index values of around 105° Heat advisory across much of the area due to peak heat index values of 95 to 104° Air quality alert across much of the area due to ground level ozone The extreme heat is straining power systems across the Tri-State Area and prompted Con Edison to ask New Yorkers to limit their usage. As of 6:45 a.m. Wednesday, Con Ed reported 5,360 customers were still without service. In New Jersey, JCP&L reported 2,329 customers out, and PSE&G had 4,330 customers out. Heat wave confirmed Wednesday CBS News New York After a stuffy start, temperatures are headed for the mid 90s by Wednesday afternoon. When you factor in the humidity, it will feel like 100°. An approaching cold front also may trigger a strong thunderstorm or two this afternoon, so do be mindful of that. Tonight will remain unsettled with a few showers around. As for temperatures, they'll retreat into the 70s and 60s — a slight improvement over last night. Set to cool down Thursday CBS News New York Thursday will kick off with some showers around, but the big story will be the remarkable cool-down, as temperatures struggle to even hit 80°. As for Friday, it will be cloudy and even cooler with highs in the low 70s.
National Post
5 days ago
- Climate
- National Post
Nearly half the U.S. population faces a scorching heat wave
Article content New York — Tens of millions of Americans sweltered outside or sought air-conditioned refuge as an 'extremely dangerous' heat wave blanketed the eastern United States on Tuesday with record high temperatures. Article content As a fierce sun reflected off the skyscrapers of New York, the normally frenetic Times Square was virtually deserted by mid-day as the mercury reached 99 degrees Fahrenheit (37 Celsius), the hottest since 2012 in the Big Apple. Article content Article content By mid-afternoon Newark, N.J., hit 103F (39.4C), according to the National Weather Service (NWS), and Philadelphia also reached 100F (38C). Article content Article content New Yorkers walked under umbrellas as they navigated the streets of Manhattan, while others sunbathed in swimsuits in parks. Article content 'It's been kind of a cold spring. Then all of a sudden, boom, here it is,' Eleanor Burke, 82, told AFP of the heat, recalling how she took a dog for a walk the night before and 'he almost looked like he was dead.' Article content Soaring temperatures are straining the city's power grid as people crank up their air conditioning. In the Bronx, a New York borough, a blackout left more than 34,000 homes without power, prompting energy supplier Con Edison to urge residents to moderate their electricity consumption. Article content The NWS warned of East Coast temperatures of 97F-103F (36C-39.4C) on Tuesday, and a heat index — what the temperature feels like with humidity factored in — spiking as high as 110F (43.3C) for the New York metropolitan area. Article content Article content 'Extremely dangerous heat persists across the Midwest and East Coast … affecting nearly half of the U.S. population at 161 million people,' the NWS warned in an advisory, which also urged people to limit their physical activity due to poor air quality. Article content Article content 'I don't mind heat … but this of course is way too much,' said Maureen Brandon, 50, who said she walks in the shade and gets things done in the morning or evening, outside of peak heat hours. Article content In the U.S. capital, temperatures also flirted with triple digits. The Washington Monument, the famed obelisk honouring America's first president, was closed Tuesday and Wednesday due to 'extreme heat in the DC area,' the National Park Service said.
Express Tribune
5 days ago
- Climate
- Express Tribune
Nearly half the US population face scorching heat wave
Tens of millions of Americans sweltered outside or sought air-conditioned refuge as an "extremely dangerous" heat wave blanketed the eastern United States on Tuesday with record high temperatures. As a fierce sun reflected off the skyscrapers of New York, the normally frenetic Times Square was virtually deserted by mid-day as the mercury reached 99 degrees Fahrenheit (37 Celsius), the hottest since 2012 in the Big Apple. By mid-afternoon Newark, New Jersey hit 103F (39.4C), according to the National Weather Service, and Philadelphia also reached 100F (38C). New Yorkers walked under umbrellas as they navigated the streets of Manhattan, while others sunbathed in swimsuits in parks. "It's been kind of a cold spring. Then all of a sudden, boom, here it is," Eleanor Burke, 82, told AFP of the heat, recalling how she took a dog for a walk the night before and "he almost looked like he was dead." Soaring temperatures are straining the city's power grid as people crank up their air conditioning. In the Bronx, a New York borough, a blackout left more than 34,000 homes without power, prompting energy supplier Con Edison to urge residents to moderate their electricity consumption. The NWS warned of East Coast temperatures of 97F-103F (36C-39.4C) on Tuesday, and a heat index — what the temperature feels like with humidity factored in -— spiking as high as 110F (43.3C) for the New York metropolitan area. AFP
Al Jazeera
5 days ago
- Al Jazeera
Heatwave poses risks to US power grid
The heatwave currently blanketing two-thirds of the United States with record-setting temperatures is straining the nation's power system. On Monday, Con Edison, New York City's power provider, urged residents to conserve electricity. It reduced power voltage to the borough of Brooklyn by 8 percent as it made repairs; it did the same to areas in the boroughs of Staten Island and Queens yesterday. Thousands also lost power as the grid could not handle the strain. Comparable outages have been felt around much of the East Coast and Midwest including in the states of Virginia and New Jersey. In Philadelphia and Cleveland, power went out for thousands of customers after severe thunderstorms late last week, and has yet to be restored as the region faces high temperatures. The national railroad corporation Amtrak reported delays on Tuesday due to speed restrictions caused by the heat on routes that went through Washington, Philadelphia and New York. Power grid woes This heatwave is bringing attention to the vulnerability of the power infrastructure in the US. In the latest annual assessment from the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), large parts of the US have insufficient power reserves to operate in 'above-normal conditions', including parts of the Midwest, Texas, New England and southern California. Heat-related power grid strains have surged in recent years. According to a report from Climate Central released last year, there have been 60 percent more heat-related power outages between 2014-2023 than in the 10 years prior. This comes amid new but growing pressures on the US power grid, including the prevalence of artificial intelligence data centres and the energy needed to power them. In 2022, in northern Virginia, Dominion Energy warned that data centres there used up so much energy that it might be unable to keep up with surging demand. For AI data centres, that strain is only set to get more pressing as generative AI booms. It is expected that AI server farms' power demand will increase to 12 percent by 2030. There are also more immediate concerns of a cyberthreat from Iranian-backed 'hacktivists', which could target the US power grid at a vulnerable moment to avenge the recent US attack on Iran's nuclear sites, CNN reported. The US power grid cyberthreat sharing centre has been monitoring the dark web for threats, it said, as the Department of Homeland Security issued a warning on Sunday about potential cyberattacks. 'Both hacktivists and Iranian government-affiliated actors routinely target poorly secured US networks and Internet-connected devices for disruptive cyber attacks,' the advisory said. In 2023, Iran-linked hacktivists targeted a water authority in Pennsylvania with minimal success. In 2024, US authorities discovered that Iran-associated hackers were behind cyberattacks on US healthcare facilities. Power grids are particularly at risk, according to a 2024 report by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), which said that there are as many as 23,000 to 24,000 susceptible points in the US power grid systems that could be vulnerable to cyberattacks.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Climate
- Yahoo
New York City's Power Is Going Down Amid Brutal Heatwave
While a gigantic heat dome parks itself like an unwelcome guest over a major swath of the United States, residents of the ultra-dense metropolis of New York City are the perfect example of a country so cooked by climate change that it's overwhelming existing infrastructure. More than 3,000 people were without power for a second day in a row in parts of Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island, according to local broadcaster PIX 11. Con Edison, the local power company, did manage to restore power to over 34,000 households in the Bronx. It's an alarming example of power grid failures across the nation and world amidst this annual onslaught of intense heat. Utilities in North Carolina are urging residents to conserve electricity in case the power grid goes down, while their counterparts in Maine are also afraid of peak electricity tripping up their operations. The unrelenting temperatures, which has soared over three digits and is considered the first heat wave of the season, should peak midweek for Northeastern cities. "Like an air fryer, it's going to be hot," Ryan Maue, meteorologist and former National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief scientist, told NPR. "This is a three-day stretch of dangerous heat that will test the mettle of city dwellers who are most vulnerable to oppressive heat waves." Inevitably it'll cool down, but the threat of blackouts as global warming makes our weather more extreme is dire no matter where you look. Much of the power grid in the United States was built decades ago, in the 1960s and 1970s, and transmission infrastructure has a shelf-life of 50 to 80 years, with billions needed to pay for their upgrades. There has been research to make the power grid more resilient, but something tells us that not much has been deployed; the Department of Energy just issued a warning about electricity usage in the Southeast of the United States. Oh, and not only are we facing the double whammy of aging infrastructure and climate change, but we also need to contend with power-hungry AI data centers. Can we keep up? So far, the answer seems to be "barely." More on power grids: Sam Altman Says "Significant Fraction" of Earth's Total Electricity Should Go to Running AI
