
Scenes From the Hottest Block in New York City
He reached Ibra Foods Importer & Distributor near Newtown Creek, in Maspeth, Queens, a few minutes before 10 a.m. He pulled down the brim of his baseball cap, which read 'Thuglife Outlaw,' and drank the last drops from a little bottle of water. Then he shrugged and headed inside.
'There's nothing I can do, man,' said Mr. Liu, 26, who lives in Fresh Meadows, Queens. 'Look at me, I'm already sweating. And I'm just going to sweat all day.'
After a long spring that was unusually cool and notably wet, summer finally arrived in force. In Central Park the high reached 96 degrees, and the heat index, which combines temperature and humidity, hit 106, according to the National Weather Service.
At least the people in Central Park had some shade nearby.
The hottest places on hot days in New York City are the acres of asphalt at LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy Airports, according to a heat map published by the City Council. Smaller hot spots abound, usually where there are few trees, including a section of Jamaica, Queens, and around the giant food warehouses in the Hunts Point section of the Bronx.
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CBS News
21 minutes ago
- CBS News
How urban planners are working to reduce heat. Thermal imaging shows how hot surfaces get.
With temperatures soaring this week, residents in Cambridge, Massachusetts are doing whatever they can to beat the heat. For many, that means less time outside. "I'm out in this for 10 minutes to walk the dog and then I go home and it's shower time," a Cambridge resident said. Amid the heat wave, public parks with splash pads have been a reprieve for families seeking relief. "I'm here Monday through Friday," said Emily Ortiz, a young woman enjoying the splash pad at Dana Park. As climate change continues to push urban temperatures higher, experts are exploring long-term strategies to make city living more tolerable. Kishore Varanasi is a principal designer at CBT, a firm focused on creating cooler public environments. Using thermal imaging, Varanasi demonstrates just how hot urban surfaces can become. "You can see here the surface is measuring 136 degrees Fahrenheit, but the air temperature is 88 degrees," he said. "So, if I bring it to the shade, you see that it matches the air temperature." Varanasi said that the excessive heat is due to the way cities have been historically designed. "What makes cities hotter is everything that we've built. The air conditioners spitting out heat, the materials that we've used, the asphalt, cars," Varanasi said. "All of it makes cities 10 to 15 degrees hotter." To combat the urban heat island effect, Varanasi and his team are working with urban planners to redesign spaces by introducing more shade and using materials like special concrete mixes that retain less heat. "We also have other alternatives to create shade," he said. For example, you can use structures, like the one at Cambridge Crossing. "It is a part of the park, but it is shaded so on days like this you can be in this space and feel comfortable," he said. It is an effect that can be felt, with temperatures decreasing up to 40 degrees under his shaded structures. As extreme heat becomes more common, Cambridge's push for cooler, shaded spaces may serve as a model for other urban areas grappling with rising temperatures.


CBS News
2 hours ago
- CBS News
Extreme rain events are becoming more common in the Chicago area as the climate warms
Extreme rainfall events in Chicago, including two observed this summer, are becoming more common as the climate warms. Very small, localized thunderstorms brought intense rains to parts of Chicago on both July 8 and July 25. While data analysis of the more recent July rainfall event is ongoing, National Weather Service Senior Service Hydrologist Scott Lincoln tells CBS News Chicago that the 5 inches of rain that fell in less than three hours July 8 only has a 0.2% chance of happening in a given year. This would once have been referred to as a 1-in-500 year rainfall event, but the NWS now avoids that phrasing since there is no guarantee it will be another 500 years before it happens again. Late in the evening on July 8, a very localized, torrential thunderstorm sat over portions of central Cook County west of the Loop on the Eisenhower Expressway. Parts of the Near West Side, North Lawndale, the United Center, West Garfield Park and East Garfield Park experienced extreme rainfall, with one unofficial rain gauge tallying 5.39 inches in just two hours. "Comparing this event to our record of extreme rainfall events impacting the Chicago area since 1950 indicates that this is among the smallest recorded extreme rainfall events over that period, covering only an approximately three square mile area," Lincoln said. As global climate change warms Chicago area temperatures, it is leading to heavier rainfall events. For every one degree of warming, the atmosphere holds 4% more moisture. The heaviest rain events in the Great Lakes region have gotten 45% heavier since 1958, according to Climate Central. This is impacting Chicago's water infrastructure and flooding basements more often. "As of July 8, 2025, the 2020s decade has had four extreme rainfall events in central Cook County," Lincoln said. "Compared to the the 1950s, 2000s, and 2010s which each had two known extreme rainfall events within that same area." Lincoln noted rain gauge observations were not as widespread prior to the 1990s, potentially affecting historical data collection. "Multiple lines of evidence suggest that the threshold for 'extreme rainfall' in the Chicago area is changing," Lincoln said. "Analysis of daily rainfall in Chicago indicated that 'extreme' 1-day rainfall early in Chicago's history (1871-1930) was approximately 6 inches, while this value increased to just over 8 inches in more recent times (1961-2020)." More detailed studies of rainfall frequency indicate a heavy rain event that has a 1% chance of occurring in a given year — once called a 1-in-100 year event — has gotten heavier. A NOAA publication indicated a 100-year event was 5.6 inches of rain in the late 1950s. An Illinois State Water Survey publication shows it has increased to 8.6 inches as of the late 2010s.


Associated Press
3 hours ago
- Associated Press
California city that experienced deadly tsunami in 1964 warns people to stay off beaches
CRESCENT CITY, Calif. (AP) — Officials warned people to stay away from beaches and waterways Wednesday in a small California coastal city near the border with Oregon that has been hit by dozens of tsunamis, including one that turned deadly more than 60 years ago. No injuries were reported Wednesday in Crescent City, a town of 6,600 people, but a dock at the city's harbor was damaged, officials said. A surge of water lifted the dock off its pilings around 2:40 a.m., and it was eventually submerged, Harbormaster Mike Rademaker said at the briefing. The dock was engineered as a wave and current attenuator to disrupt the waves' force before they reach the inner harbor, so it appears to have functioned as intended, he said. It was a long night with a lot of uncertainty, but the city didn't see flooding, City Manager Eric Wier said. The downtown is high enough that it was open Wednesday morning, he said. The 1964 event, considered the worst tsunami disaster recorded in the United States, began with a 9.2 magnitude earthquake in Alaska, according to the Crescent City website. Three small waves caused little damage, but then a big wave — nearly 21 feet — devastated 29 city blocks. The quake caused 15 deaths, and the ensuing tsunami caused 124 deaths: 106 in Alaska, 13 in California and 5 in Oregon, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Centers for Environmental Information. The city's downtown was mostly rebuilt, and today a walking tour highlights high-water marks posted on surviving buildings, objects pushed by waves and memorials to those who died. The city's website warns that a tsunami could happen anytime and since most of downtown is in the tsunami run-up zone, if there were a near-shore earthquake, people would only have minutes to reach safety. Thirty-two tsunamis have been observed in the city since 1933, including five that caused damage. The greatest impact from the tsunami event along the coast Wednesday morning was around Crescent City with strong tidal swings, including up to 4-foot waves, according to James White, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service's Eureka office. The city is one of the areas along the West Coast most vulnerable to tsunamis, he said. The shape of the coastline and seafloor influences how tsunamis manifest, and a lot of the wave energy gets funneled into Crescent City, increasing the impact, White said. Crescent City's Weir and other officials stressed that conditions may be improving, but it wasn't yet safe to head to the beach on Wednesday. There were still dramatic tide fluctuations that must carry high currents, Wier said. 'It seems like whenever we have these events, it's also time that we lose someone just because they're in the wrong place and they get caught off-guard, and then they're swept out,' he said.