NEW YORK -- The urban Northeast baked on Friday as record-breaking 100-degree temperatures and steam-bath humidity combined with the heat-trapping effects of asphalt and concrete to make millions of people miserable.
The mercury in Newark, N.J., reached 108, the highest temperature recorded in the city. Airports near Washington and Baltimore hit 105. Philadelphia reached 104; Boston, 103; Portland, Maine, and Concord, N.H., 101; and Providence, R.I., 100. New York City hit 104 degrees, 2 degrees short of its all-time high, and with the oppressive humidity, it felt like 113.
Donald Demarque, a handyman, sat outside an auto repair shop in the broiling Bronx, waiting to get the air conditioner checked on his Nissan.
"It's only working at about half power," he said. "I think if it was a regular day, I could put up with it, but not today."
The heat wave wafted in from the Midwest -- it began last weekend and did not break until Friday in Chicago -- and is a suspected or confirmed cause in more than a dozen deaths around the country. On Friday, the medical examiner's office in Chicago listed heat stress or heat stroke as the cause of death for seven people. An 18-year-old landscaper who died Thursday night in Louisville, Ky., had a temperature of 110, the coroner said.
On Friday, power supplies were stretched, and utilities were hoping that some businesses would close early for the weekend.
Con Edison in New York set a record for power demand at 1 p.m., breaking a mark set Aug. 2, 2006, utility spokesman Bob McGhee said.
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