The warmth that has gripped a lot of the nation has seeped into New England, and together with it highly effective thunderstorms
ByThe Related Press
September 8, 2023, 11:24 AM
BOSTON — The warmth that has gripped a lot of the nation seeped into New England on Friday, forcing some faculties to shut or ship youngsters residence early whereas highly effective thunderstorms additionally swept via the area.
A Massachusetts man was killed early Friday and his fiancee was significantly injured when a tree fell on them throughout a storm whereas they had been tenting in Somerset, Vermont, police stated. Excessive winds downed downs tree limbs and energy strains throughout the area, leaving tens of hundreds with out energy in Massachusetts and Maine.
The mayor of Boston declared a warmth emergency with cooling facilities opening across the metropolis.
In Lowell, Massachusetts, the place not one of the 28 faculties have air con, all lessons remained closed on Friday for security causes. The temperature was anticipated to achieve a excessive of 90 levels Fahrenheit (32 levels Celsius), with the humidity making it really feel like 95 F (35 C).
Different faculties in Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Hampshire had been additionally closed or despatched college students residence early — and curtailed after-school actions.
Electrical followers had been delivered to varsities to assist hold lecturers and college students comfy as temperatures approached 90 F on Thursday in components of New England. Many of the public faculties in Boston have entry to air con, however the metropolis would provide water and followers to the faculties that want them, Mayor Michelle Wu stated when she declared a warmth emergency for Thursday and Friday.
Sizzling temperatures earlier within the week induced disruptions at faculties from Michigan to Virginia, with some districts dismissing college students early and others holding lessons on-line. Within the second week of the U.S. Open tennis match in New York, the warmth and humidity is pushing gamers to the restrict. The Grand Slam match adopted a brand new coverage on Tuesday to partially shut the Arthur Ashe Stadium roof in excessive situations to supply some additional shade.
In Texas throughout one other stretch of scorching summer season warmth, the ability grid supervisor on Thursday requested residents to chop their electrical energy use, a day after the system was pushed to the brink of outages for the primary time since a lethal winter blackout in 2021.
Augusta, Maine, set a report of 90 F (32 C) on Thursday and Harmony, New Hampshire, reached 93 F (33 C), stated Sarah Thunberg, meteorologist for the Nationwide Climate Service in Maine.
