Canadian Cool Front Brings Relief to Sweltering Northeast

The weeklong heat wave that has steamed the Eastern half of the nation sent hundreds of thousands of people to beaches Saturday, but a weak cool front easing southward from Canada brought slight relief for some northern areas.

Some cities passed their record highs at noon, and thermometers continued rising. Even the water of Lake Erie rose to 79 degrees in mid-morning at Buffalo, N.Y., the warmest the lake has been in 61 years of record keeping. Seven deaths in five states have been blamed on the heat since July 17.

The temperature at New York’s Central Park and at nearby Newark, N.J., reached 95 and passed both cities’ records for the date before 1 p.m., but New York stayed at that temperature while Newark rose to 97.

South Carolina Record

Greenville-Spartanburg, S.C., passed its record of 95 at 12:30 p.m. and rose to 99. Providence, R.I., tied its record of 92 at 10 minutes after noon, and climbed another degree in 20 minutes. Philadelphia tied its record of 95 and Charlotte, N.C., tied its record of 100.

Other records included 101 at Baltimore; 99 at Richmond, Va.; 97 at Greensboro-High Point-Winston Salem airport; 97 at Bristol, Tenn.; 98 at Roanoke, Va., and 96 at Wilmington, Del.

The hottest spot in the nation was the desert city of Needles, Calif., at 108.

The National Weather Service said parts of the Southeast would suffer a heat index, a combination of heat and humidity, of 105. A heat index of 79 is considered uncomfortable for everyone.

Part of the cool front had eased as far south as northern Illinois and Indiana, slightly lowering temperatures and humidity, and the eastern end was slowly moving over the Northeast.

Thunderstorm Alerts

The clash between warm and cool air brought severe thunderstorm watches for parts of Ohio, Indiana, South Dakota, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and Massachusetts.

The weather service predicted a 30% chance of thunderstorms today in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.

Suburban Maple Grove residents worked feverishly under darkening skies to repair more than 200 homes damaged by tornadoes before another round of thunderstorms hits.