Still, the temperatures — which were hovering around 90 before 8 a.m. — did not stop throngs of intrepid tourists from braving an impressively suffocating city.
“You get the fresh wind there, blowing through the streets,” said Roeleb Molemaker, 55, a visitor from Holland who was in lower Manhattan with his family. “We can walk slow.”
Across the city, restaurateurs said they had noticed mostly intrepid crowds of tourists, as many New Yorkers opted to stay inside.
“These tourists just want to come and eat, drink and then be on their way to find a new place to cool down,” said Maria Gonzalez, 26, a waitress at Il Piccolo Bufalo restaurant on Mulberry Street. “So we’ll be open for them.”
New York, like much of the country, has been in the grip of a heat wave, pushing officials in the city to declare a state of emergency lasting through the weekend as they fear the worst consequences such weather can bring. Meteorologists have issued extreme heat advisories stretching from the East Coast through the panhandle of Texas and the Midwest.
The temperature in New York was expected to shoot right back up to the edge of 100 degrees Sunday, renewing worries about overburdening the city’s power system and the most vulnerable residents falling victim to the heat.
There were limited power failures in the city Saturday. Con Edison reported at one point that more than 3,300 customers were without electricity, including about 1,400 in eastern Queens. Thousands of others across the country also lost power.
Forecasters said that oppressive heat would continue Sunday across the Atlantic Coast, from South Carolina to Maine, with highs reaching into the upper 90s, and humidity that would make it feel well over 100 degrees. But showers and thunderstorms, and with them cooler temperatures, are expected closer to the Midwest. In New York, rainfall — and relief from the heat — is expected Monday.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.