Northeast Swelters in Steamy Heat as Thunderstorms Batter Midwest

Temperatures soared into the 90s again Sunday in the Northeast, driving hundreds of thousands of people to parks and beaches, and powerful thunderstorms continued to hammer Texas, where residents had to be rescued from high water.

“The beach is packed. . . . The traffic is the only problem. Nobody’s moving,” said police Officer Leonard Randall at Revere, Mass., north of Boston.

The humid air in the East also generated storms, and a severe thunderstorm watch was issued for parts of Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, New York and New Jersey. The National Weather Service said that a tornado damaged a car at Williston, Vt., but no one was injured.

A State University of New York lightning detector picked up more than 200 strikes in the Catskill Mountains within half an hour. Lightning struck a couple and their 10-year-old child in Prospect Park in New York City, injuring all three of them. Strong thunderstorms also broke from Texas to Minnesota and Michigan and in Kentucky, and a funnel cloud was sighted over central Arkansas.

Flood waters in Pauls Valley, Okla., were receding rapidly, and 40 National Guard troops were released from duty there Sunday.

Some of the record high temperatures were 96 degrees at Newark, N.J., in its third day of record heat; 92 at Atlantic City, N.J.; 91 at Bridgeport, Conn., and 95 at Hartford, Conn.