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American Morning
Heat Wave Blankets the Nation
Aired August 08, 2001 - 09:01 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: All right, we're going to start talking about the heat, talking about hot topics -- not Daryn Kagan...
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Oh, well, thank you very much.
HARRIS: We're talking about the sizzling temperatures that are blanketing much of the nation right now. This is a deadly heat wave and it stretches all the way from the Midwest and the Plains all the way to the East Coast and it's been blamed for at least six deaths now in the Midwest. Temperatures soaring above or near triple digits are combining with horrible humidity, and that's making it seem even hotter.
In Iowa, people are being asked now to conserve electricity and water, which is going to be tough to do in these temperatures. In New York City, they opened up the fire hydrants to help the kids cool off like you see there. The state also opened up hundreds of cooling centers for people who don't have air conditioners.
KAGAN: No one's tracking this better than our own Chad Myers, who is in our weather center -- Chad, any relief in sight?
CHAD MYERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A little bit today for New York, five degrees. It's not going to feel like 108, it's going to feel like 103. Is that relief? I'm not sure. Tomorrow it goes right back up again.
But Havre, Montana picked up a new record yesterday, 107. Wells, Nevada, a new record for all time, any day, any year, it's never been hotter than 102, as it was yesterday. Newark, New Jersey, it was 100. It felt like 111 in New Jersey. Hoboken, very hot yesterday. Minneapolis was 98. Their heat index, 109. Even Green Bay 97. Marquette, Michigan, someplace you go to escape the heat, 96 yesterday afternoon.
So, yes, it was hot. Not any better today in most areas. It's going to be significantly hotter in some spots, especially down about Philadelphia way. A little back door cool front moving through we'll call it upstate New York into parts of New England will cool things down just a couple of degrees today. Still very hot. Don't let your guard down. Make sure you have plenty of water anywhere here in this darker area. The heat index going to approach 110 and in some spots going to beat that. Yesterday, the highest heat index across the country, 124 degrees. So things are going to be warm again today. We'll have more on this coming up in just a few minutes -- Daryn, back to you.
KAGAN: Chad, going to have you stand by. I have some company for you. We have Joe Cioffi from our affiliate WPIX in New York City to join us now -- Joe, looking any better today?
JOE CIOFFI, WPIX CORRESPONDENT: Actually, in one respect it is slightly, and we're really splitting hairs here...
MYERS: Yes.
CIOFFI: ... with, when we say slightly. The humidity levels are down just a shade from yesterday and there's also a little bit less with respect to haze. So that has made it maybe a tiny, tiny bit easier to take. But the temperatures are about an even keel. We were at 85 at 9:00 in the morning yesterday. We're at 85 now and yesterday we got to 99. So I think we'll probably hit 98 or 9 by late this afternoon.
KAGAN: Chad, let's have you jump in here. You were just saying, though, you expected it to crank up again even more tomorrow. Is that right?
MYERS: Yes. I guess that the little cool front that you had, we had winds out of the northwest for you all night long. I don't know if you could feel them or not. They probably still felt like blast furnace temperatures, but they're going to back around tomorrow again and then come out of the southwest and heat you right back up, bring all of that haze right back in, as I see it. What do you see?
CIOFFI: Well, the northwest wind here does two things. It, on the one hand it brings the humidity level down a shade, because it's a drying wind. But on the other hand, it keeps the sea breeze from coming in.
MYERS: Oh, yes.
CIOFFI: So this is a day where if you head to the beach, you can feel your skin start to crackle because the sea breeze won't kick in and the beach temperatures will go to 97 or 98. You have to literally be standing in the water in order to get any kind of relief at the shore.
KAGAN: All right, Joe...
MYERS: No help at Sandy Hook today.
CIOFFI: No help at Sandy Hook or Jones Beach, but they're great places to be for sure.
MYERS: Right.
KAGAN: It's all relative. Better than being in the city with no air conditioning.
Joe Cioffi from WPIX, thanks for joining us.
CIOFFI: Thank you.
KAGAN: Chad, thank you. Of course, we'll be checking in with Chad throughout the morning.
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