Good Monday morning. It’s very hot.
As I sit down to write this at 2:30 a.m., it’s already 77 degrees. According to the forecast, we’re headed for another 90+-degree day, with 85 percent humidity.
Relative humidity, by the way, is the amount of water vapor actually in the air, expressed as a percentage of the maximum amount of water vapor the air can hold at the same temperature.
When humidity is high, the air is so clogged with water vapor that there’s not room for much else. So, if you sweat when its humid, it can be hard to cool off because your sweat can’t evaporate into the air like it needs to.
Most of the area is again under a heat advisory, and heat index values – apparent temperature, which is a combination of the air temperature and relative humidity – up to 103 are expected.
When this occurs, you are advised to avoid prolonged activity outside – especially if you’re fragile (very young, very old, not in good health) – and to stay indoors, preferably in an air conditioned room. DO NOT LEAVE KIDS OR PETS UNATTENDED IN A CLOSED VEHICLE!!!
If you do have to be outdoors, it’s recommended that you hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. Strenuous activity should be limited to the cooler hours (morning and evening), and wear loose-fitting, light-colored clothing. If you are out during the day and have a job that requires exerting yourself, take frequent breaks in the shade.
It looks like these conditions will stick around for the next several days, and then we’re in for a stretch of cooler weather – like in the 70s, which is a pretty big drop.
Oh, and by the way, if you think you’re hot….be glad you’re not in the Pacific Northwest, which is struggling through a serious heatwave.
If you happen to be Serbian, Happy St. Vitus Day! More about that here…(I spent a lot of time yammering on about the weather, and since a lot of news occurred over the past several days, I think we need to get to it).
In the headlines…
The city of Miami Beach declared a state of emergency in the wake of the collapse of a condo building in neighboring Surfside, so that it can recoup at least some related costs.
The investigation into what may be the deadliest accidental building collapse in American history has just begun. Experts are focusing on a spot in the lowest part of the condominium complex, where an initial failure could have set off a structural avalanche.
Eliana Salzhauer, one of three town commissioners for Surfside, Florida, said last night that survivors of the Champlain Towers South collapse she encountered have said they felt shaking during construction on a nearby building in recent years.
On Saturday, police officials said there were five deaths, 156 people unaccounted for and 130 people accounted for in the collapse of the Champlain South Towers, which pancaked early Thursday morning.
Rescue crews supplemented by federal and state resources, as well as teams from Mexico and Israel, continued to search through the rubble.
Orlando Bravo, a Puerto Rican billionaire and co-founder of the private equity firm Thoma Bravo, donated $250,000 to the relief fund Support Surfside – making this the largest pledge to the cause thus far.
Despite round-the-clock search efforts, rescuers found only a handful of bodies and scattered human remains amid the wreckage over the weekend. The window for survivors is closing.
A month after an engineer’s report flagged “major structural damage” at Champlain Towers South, the chief building official for the town of Surfside told residents the condominium was “in very good shape.”
A pitcher for the University of Connecticut baseball team and his family managed to make it out of the condominium complex near Miami moments before its horrific collapse last week. Justin Willis, his parents and his sister went down 11 flights of stairs.
President Joe Biden directed military forces to conduct defensive precision airstrikes against facilities used by Iran-backed militia groups in the Iraq-Syria border region yesterday evening, according to a news release from the Department of Defense.
Biden walked back his stray remarks in a bid to salvage an infrastructure agreement that could cement his legacy as a bipartisan deal maker.
A fragile bipartisan infrastructure deal appeared to be moving forward once again, as moderate Republicans said they had been reassured that Biden would not hold it hostage while Democrats simultaneously work on a larger, partisan economic package.
Some 4,000 federal offenders could soon return to prison — not because they violated the terms of their home confinement, but because the United States appears to be moving past the worst of the pandemic.
Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison is convening an emergency COVID-19 meeting with state and territory leaders this afternoon, as outbreaks of the highly contagious Delta variant see restrictions return across the country.
Danielle Anderson was working in what has become the world’s most notorious laboratory just weeks before the first known cases of Covid-19 emerged in central China. Yet, the Australian virologist still wonders what she missed.
India has officially recorded more than 390,000 coronavirus deaths, but families who have lost loved ones, health experts and statisticians say that vastly undercounts the true toll.
The World Health Organization has urged fully vaccinated people to continue to wear masks, social distance and practice other Covid-19 pandemic safety measures as the highly contagious delta variant spreads rapidly across the globe.
More than 4,100 people have been hospitalized or died with Covid-19 in the U.S. even though they’ve been fully vaccinated, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Millions of people in Brazil are missing their second doses of Covid-19 vaccine, further complicating a campaign already marred by supply shortages and allegations of graft.
Russia registered the first Covid vaccine. Now it’s struggling to vaccinate its population.
For those with weakened immune systems, COVID-19 vaccines don’t mean the end of the pandemic.
Researchers at the Duke Human Vaccine Institute have created a vaccine with the potential to protect against multiple types of coronavirus.
Most medical consent laws require parental permission for minors to get a vaccine. Now some places are easing restrictions for Covid shots while others are proposing new ones.
Misinformation, language barriers and fears around immigration enforcement are hampering efforts to vaccinate Hispanic communities against Covid-19, challenging the Biden administration’s push to crush the coronavirus as the new variant spreads.
The number of unemployment-benefit recipients is falling at a faster rate in Missouri and 21 other states canceling enhanced and extended payments this month, suggesting that ending the aid could push more people to take jobs.
Across the U.S., many hard-hit businesses eager to return to normal have been reluctant to demand proof of vaccination from customers. And the public and the politicians in many places have made it clear they don’t care for the idea.
Johnson & Johnson will pay New York State more than $230 million in a settlement that also ensures the company will permanently stay out of the opioid business in the United States, the state attorney general’s office announced.
Johnson & Johnson’s New York deal removes it from a coming trial on Long Island but not from the rest of the cases it faces nationwide, including a continuing trial in California.
Hospitalizations, patients in the ICU, and intubated patients statewide are at their lowest levels since the pandemic started.
New York ‘s Covid-19 numbers continue to plummet, and Western New York’s regional rates continue to be the lowest of the low.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg today will tour a set of Hudson River train tunnels that were damaged in 2012 by Hurricane Sandy, U.S. Department of Transportation officials said.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office has informed Donald Trump’s lawyers that it is considering criminal charges against his family business, the Trump Organization, in connection with fringe benefits the company awarded a top executive.
The state GOP today is scheduled to take a straw poll and may nominate Suffolk County U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin as its presumptive 2022 gubernatorial nominee.
Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani’s son, Andrew, leads Zeldin by eight points in the race to take on scandal-scarred three-term Democratic incumbent Gov. Andrew Cuomo next year, according to a poll commissioned by Giuliani’s campaign.
Eric Adams is not yet assured of victory in the New York City mayor’s race. But if he prevails, it would be a triumph for a campaign that focused more heavily working- and middle-class Black and Latino voters.
New York progressives cheered last week after an insurgent socialist defied the odds and defeated a longtime incumbent to decisively win a Democratic primary for mayor – of Buffalo.
Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown is giving serious consideration to mounting a write-in campaign to keep his job in November.
This comes as leaders in the mayor’s own party are lining up, saying they would not support his write-in candidacy, but an outspoken local business leader is forging ahead.
Businessman Carl Paladino downplayed a report that he was organizing the Buffalo business community to support a write-in campaign for Brown. He said he’s not leading any active effort right now.
As the city Board of Elections continues to sift through mail-in ballots and sort out ranked-choice voting from last Tuesday’s primary election, more than half of the open Council seats are leaning toward women candidates.
The 471-day shutdown of Broadway, the longest in its history, ended Saturday night with Bruce Springsteen.
“I am here tonight to provide proof of life,” Springsteen called out early on. It was a line from the monologue of his original show — which ran for 236 performances, in 2017 and 2018 — and now it carried extra weight.
A tourist was struck by a stray bullet while walking with his family in Times Square late yesterday afternoon, police sources said – a block from where a 4-year-old girl and two others were struck by gunfire last month.
Federal officials should look at Southeastern states where it’s easy to purchase guns while they are aiming to crack down on shootings in cities like New York, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said.
The man, who was struck once in the back by a stray bullet, was listed in stable condition at Bellevue Hospital, the police said.
A wild melee broke out in Washington Square Park last night when revelers from the annual Pride celebration clashed with police, sources said.
More than 300 city construction sites have been shut down this month because building inspectors found glaring safety violations.
The rollout of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s ambitious expanded summer school program is in chaos with less than two weeks before its start, parents and educators warn.
An ultra-Orthodox mother navigated strict cultural norms to become one of the few Hasidic female doctors in the country.
After more than two decades, RPI President Shirley Jackson announced her plans to retire next summer.
Shenendehowa Central School District, which has the most in-person students in the Capital Region, never closed a building during the pandemic, instead quarantining the fewest number of people possible in each COVID-19 exposure.
As Allison Mack awaits a federal sentencing in Brooklyn for her crimes related to NXIVM, the ex-television actress and former Halfmoon resident is offering a harsh description of cult leader Keith Raniere: a “twisted man.”
The skeletal remains found buried in the yard of a 13th Street home in Watervliet are that of a newborn, city police said.
City of Saratoga Springs police are investigating a downtown stabbing and gunfire that took place overnight after a brawl erupted on Caroline Street near Broadway.
Seventeen years after the disappearance of a Capital Region teenager, Craig Frear, authorities are investigating a new lead they hope will help solve one of the local community’s most painful mysteries.
Different communities across upstate New York, each with their own social and economic stories, have vastly different outlooks when it comes to solar developments.
A major solar facility is coming to Long Island as New York continues its push for more green, renewable energy sources.
A regional effort to prevent the spread of invasive species will cross over to other states and Canada.
A Saratoga Springs judge was named by the Brooklyn DA for not painting a clear picture of the facts and incorrectly citing election law when, more than two decades ago, he encouraged the state Board of Elections to investigate a state Assembly candidate for voting illegally.
The organizers of the Tour de France said that they would sue the female spectator who caused a huge crash during the first stage of the race.
The newest “Fast & Furious” movie drove circles around the competition en route to the biggest box-office turnout since 2019.
The BET awards were last night, and Cardi B revealed she’s pregnant again.
The Harlem Globetrotters want to join the NBA.
