Steamy Saturday smashes heat record

It was a scorching - and record-setting - Saturday on Long Island.

At 3:30 p.m., the mercury at Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton reached 93.6 degrees, easily beating the previous daily record of 90 degrees set in 1972.

It was even hotter at Islip-MacArthur and Farmingdale airports, where the mercury hit 96.

And if that wasn't enough, the humidity made the temperature feel more like 100 for most of the afternoon.

The National Weather Service issued a heat advisory for all of Nassau and the western part of Suffolk until late Saturday, said meteorologist John Murray. Areas affected by a heat advisory were expected to have a heat index of between 100 and 104 degrees, he said.

Sunday's forecast calls for more of the same, with highs in the lower 90s, he said.

The highest temperature ever recorded on Long Island was 102 degrees at Islip on July 5, 1999.

A cold front will likely bring some relief to Long Island by evening, said Tim Woebbeking, a meteorologist at Weather Central. There will be a slight risk of severe thunderstorms and a moderate risk of lightning and rip currents at the ocean beaches.

The LIRR took special measures Saturday to keep trains cool and conserve energy. It said every other train door would be kept closed at platforms until three minutes before departure.

At the Syosset-Woodbury Community Pool, several families said they passed on the beach because of the weather. It would be too hot for children, said Walka Surber, 34, with her kids David, 6, and Elena, 3, and husband Robert, 41, nearby.

"When it's really hot, the pool is so much more convenient," Robert said.

Kevin Harney, 39, of Brooklyn spent early Saturday on his maiden voyage as a pilot at a Farmingdale flight school.

Saturday afternoon, Harney went to the United Artists theater, where he pondered what movie to see. But nothing was playing that he wanted, so he decided to return to the city, where he would find a "cool pub and have a nice, cold beer" and perhaps "a second beer."

Two people were struck by lightning Friday in New York City as a storm rolled through. Emergency medical workers shocked a man to restart his pulse after he was hit by lightning on Eastern Parkway in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn about 9 p.m., a fire department spokesman said. Responders had found him unconscious and lying face down. He was taken to Kings County Hospital Center.

A few minutes later in the Belmont section of the Bronx, a woman, 39, was taken to a hospital in stable condition after being struck on Garden Street, the spokesman said.

With Ted Phillips, Tula Batanchiev, Luis Gronda and Matthew Chayes