AUGUST 20, 2019

New York Today

The City Just Sweated Through Its 10th-Hottest July Ever

By Azi Paybarah

It's Tuesday.

Weather: It'll be hot and sunny again, with temperatures rising into the upper 80s. Expect thunderstorms later in the day.

Alternate-side parking: In effect until Labor Day (Sept. 2).

Johannes Eisele/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

It was hot last month. In fact, it was the 10th-hottest July on record in New York City, according to data from the National Weather Service, which has been monitoring temperatures in Central Park since 1869.

New Yorkers, though, weren't alone in suffering through oppressive and dangerous heat. The average number of heat waves in 50 major American cities has tripled since the 1960s. And last week, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration declared that last month was the hottest July on record for the planet.

August in New York has been warm, too — and a little dry. But thunderstorms predicted for this week, through Thursday, may change that.

Joe Pollina, a meteorologist with the Weather Service, said a cold front was moving through the area; thunderstorms can occur when cold and warm fronts collide. This happens with some regularity in late summer, he said.

Here's a look back at the past two months:

August, in context

As of Sunday, the average temperature in New York this month was 76.5, according to the Weather Service data.

That number is only about a half-degree above normal, but so far the month has been the 56th-hottest August on record, according to Mark Wysocki, a state climatologist.

Rainfall has been light this month. About 2.4 inches of precipitation had fallen in Central Park through Sunday — about a third of an inch short of what it normally gets.

July, in context

The average temperature for July was 79.6, which was 3.1 degrees higher than normal, according to the Weather Service data. "That's very warm," Mr. Pollina said.

Last month was the 10th-hottest July on record, Mr. Wysoki said.

July had 5.77 inches of precipitation — about 1.2 inches above normal, according to the Weather Service.

The explanation

Record or near-record monthly average temperatures are among the clearest signs that the climate is changing, in large part because of emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases from transportation, electricity generation and other human activities.

Mr. Wysoki said one way he tracks the rising temperature is by counting how many days are hotter than usual.

"What really causes average temperatures to creep up is the frequency of getting these warmer days," he said.

[How much hotter is your hometown than when you were born?]

Through Sunday, 10 days were above average this month, he said. In July, 26 of 31 days were above average.

In June, New York became the largest city on the planet to declare a climate emergency.

Officer Daniel Pantaleo is fired

Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Associated Press

The Times's Ashley Southall reports:

The New York City police officer whose chokehold was partly blamed for Eric Garner's death in police custody in 2014 was fired from the Police Department yesterday, ending a bitter, five-year legal battle that had cast a shadow over the nation's largest police force and the city it protects.

The police commissioner, James O'Neill, dismissed the officer, Daniel Pantaleo, just over two weeks after a police administrative judge found him guilty of violating a department ban on chokeholds.

"The unintended consequence of Mr. Garner's death must have a consequence of its own," Mr. O'Neill said. "Therefore I agree with the deputy commissioner of trial's legal findings and recommendations. It is clear that Daniel Pantaleo can no longer effectively serve as a New York City police officer."

[Read more about Officer Pantaleo's firing and Commissioner O'Neill's speech, which was a signature moment in his tenure.]

From The Times

Adunola Clement, a resident of Newark's West Ward.Bryan Anselm for The New York Times

"Been tasting funny for years": Lead in Newark's water and a city in crisis.

Two members of the Proud Boys, a far-right group, were convicted of assault charges stemming from a brawl with anti-fascists last fall after an event in Manhattan.

The acting director of the Bureau of Prisons was reassigned, the attorney general said, in the latest fallout over Jeffrey Epstein's suicide.

Jeffrey Epstein signed his will less than 48 hours before he hanged himself, according to court documents.

Fire hydrants have been New York's cool solution for 100 years.

[Want more news from New York and around the region? Check out our full coverage.]

The Mini Crossword: Here is today's puzzle.

What we're reading

A cyclist was injured in a hit-and-run crash in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. [Streetsblog]

New York is redesigning its license plate. Online voting goes through Sept. 2. [amNew York]

Chris Christie, the former governor of New Jersey, is starting a think tank focused on civility in politics. [WNYC]

Less local news: Verizon is closing Fios 1 News in November. [LoHud]

Coming up today

New York State of Mind concludes its summer movie series with the Eddie Murphy comedy "Coming to America" at El Barrio Community Garden in Manhattan. 6 p.m. [Free]

The Riders Alliance hosts a happy hour at True Colors Bar in Jackson Heights, Queens, for those interested in being advocates for public transit improvements in the city. 7 p.m. [Free]

Louise Sandhaus, co-author of "A Colorful Life: Gere Kavanaugh, Designer," discusses design with Mr. Kavanaugh at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in Manhattan. 7 p.m. [$15]

The Seattle band Supercrush is joined by Super Natural Psycho and Magic Ghrelin at the Brooklyn Bazaar. 8 p.m. [$10]

— Vivian Ewing and Jacob Meschke

Events are subject to change, so double-check before heading out. For more events, see the going-out guides from The Times's culture pages.

And finally: From the archives

Barton Silverman/The New York Times

Fifty-three years ago, The Times's Barton Silverman photographed a woman being apprehended after jumping barriers at a Beatles concert in Queens.

"The police, who had been idly standing by, suddenly found their hands full of struggling, weeping, hysterical teenagers," The Times's Paul L. Montgomery reported in August 1966.

More than 45,000 people attended the concert at Shea Stadium. "The noise was deafening, the music all but inaudible, the hysteria high and the money big — although not so big as in years past," Mr. Montgomery wrote.

Sid Bernstein, the Beatles' promoter, said the turnout was disappointing. The previous year, the group had filled the stadium and grossed $304,000 from that concert. But in 1966, the Beatles were 10,000 seats short of the stadium's capacity and grossed just $292,000.

Still, Mr. Bernstein told The Times he was assessing the band's future in the United States. "Mr. Bernstein said he believed the days of English rock 'n' roll groups, with the possible exception of the Beatles, were numbered," Mr. Montgomery wrote.

See more old photos at our archival storytelling project, Past Tense, and on Instagram @nytarchives.

Metropolitan Diary: 75½ Bedford Street

Dear Diary:

In summer 1969, I moved from Buffalo to live with my brother in Lower Manhattan. I got a job stripping furniture at an antique store in the West Village.

One day, the owner asked if I would be interested in moving into an apartment nearby. I eagerly accepted. It was a perfect situation for both of us: I lived rent-free and he had someone to watch over the apartment. The only caveat was that I had to leave when his brother returned from Vietnam.

The apartment was in a narrow building at 75½ Bedford Street where Edna St. Vincent Millay once lived. I had a roommate named Dan. He was from Tucson.

Dan and I became good friends. He eventually returned to Tucson and I moved back in with my brother.

Before Dan left, we went out for a farewell breakfast at a restaurant down the street from the antique store. I'll never forget the waitress's greeting.

"What can I get you two?" she said. "The usual?"

Our lives were complete: two guys from out of town being treated like regulars.

— David Sipos

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