Heat in New York, July 2 to 4, 2002

Name: Heat in New York, July 2 to 4, 2002
Start: 2002-07-02T12:00
End: 2002-07-04T17:00
Location: New York

July 2 to 4, 2002 · NWS OKX · 15 events in 15 counties and zones

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it; 13 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.

Tornadoes
Tropical storms and surge
Floods
Wind
Hail
Winter weather
Heat and drought
Cold
Fire, smoke and dust
Marine and coastal
Other

Open the live radar over this ground

The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: None recorded
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 15

Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.

What happened

The episode as NWS OKX wrote it up.

Temperatures rose into the mid and upper 90s across the region. Overnight low temperatures remained in the lower 80s on the third and fourth in highly urbanized areas throughout the New York City Metropolitan Area. Overall, temperatures averaged 10 to 15 degrees above normal. On July 4th, the temperature reached 98 degrees at LaGuardia Airport, which set a new record high temperature. High temperatures and humidities combined to produce heat indices from 100 to 105 degrees throughout the region. Many cooling centers were opened across the city. On July 4th, the New York Times reported, "Hospital emergency rooms reported some heat exhaustion cases and other heat-related ailments. Small power failures throughout the day left as many as 20,000 homes without electricity." Brownouts occurred throughout the New York City Metropolitan Area, which included New Rochelle, where over 3,300 city residents lost power. Other areas affected included Eastchester, Tuckahoe, and Bronxville, where power outages developed around 1:30 pm on July 2nd. The Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) also reported scattered power outages that affected about 2700 customers throughout Long Island on July fourth.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS New York, NY wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Jul 2, 8:30 AM EST, 3 hours 30 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Jul 2, 8:30 AM EST, 3 hours 30 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW YORK NY
930 AM EDT TUE JUL 2 2002

THE STORY OF THE DAY WILL BE THE HEAT. ALREADY...AT THIS EARLY
HOUR...MOST PLACES HAVE NUDGED ABOVE THE 80 DEGREE MARK. AND THOSE
THAT HAVENT...WILL SOON GET THERE. BY THIS AFTERNOON...THE MERCURY
WILL RISE WELL UP INTO THE 90S IN ALL AREAS EXCEPT THE EXTREME SOUTH
FACING SHORES...AND THE TWIN FORKS OF LONG ISLAND.

VISIBLE SATELLITE SHOWS AN MCS OVER MAINE. 12Z OKX SOUNDING SHOWS
GENERALLY NORTHEAST FLOW FROM 500 HPA AND UP. WE WILL PROBABLY SEE
SOME UPPER LEVEL DEBRIS FROM THIS SYSTEM...WHICH WILL DECREASE OUR
INSOLATION LATE THIS MORNING AND AFTERNOON. THIS THIN CIRRUS LAYER
MAY BE ENOUGH TO HOLD BACK THE TEMPERATURES BY A DEGREE OR TWO.

ON THE FLIP SIDE...WE CONTINUE TO WARM AT VIRTUALLY ALL LEVELS OF
THE ATMOSPHERE. 850 HPA TEMPERATURE THIS MORNING WAS 17.6 DEGREES C
UP FROM 17.4 DEGREES 12 HOURS AGO AND 14.6 DEGREES 24 HOURS AGO. THE
LOW LEVEL WIND PROFILE SHOWS WEST-NORTHWEST COMPONENT...WHICH WILL
LIMIT THE INLAND PROGRESSION OF THE SEABREEZE. WITH DEWPOINTS
HOVERING AROUND THE 70 DEGREE F MARK...IT ADDS UP TO A HAZY, HOT,
HUMID AND UNCOMFORTABLE DAY FOR THE TRI-STATE AREA. CURRENT PACKAGE
LOOKS ON TRACK...THEREFORE DO NOT PLAN AN UPDATE.

MARINE...CURRENT OBSERVATIONS REPORTING SOUTHWEST WINDS 10 TO 15
KT...WITH A SEA HEIGHT OF 3 FT. DONT EXPECT TO EVEN APPROACH SCA
CRITERIA.

.OKX...
CT...NONE.
NJ...EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING 005-006-011-032200
NY...HEAT ADVISORY 072>076-022300
MARINE...NONE.

JK

The radar

The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

15 heat. Local standard time, as filed.

Heat, Bronx

When: July 2, 12:00 PM EST to July 4, 5:00 PM EST
Where: Bronx forecast zone
Reported by: AWOS,ASOS,MESONET,ETC
Coordinates: 40.827, -73.924 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Heat, New York (Manhattan)

When: July 2, 12:00 PM EST to July 4, 5:00 PM EST
Where: New York (Manhattan) forecast zone
Reported by: AWOS,ASOS,MESONET,ETC
Coordinates: 40.774, -73.970 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Heat, Richmond (Staten Is.)

When: July 2, 12:00 PM EST to July 4, 5:00 PM EST
Where: Richmond (Staten Is.) forecast zone
Reported by: AWOS,ASOS,MESONET,ETC
Coordinates: 40.583, -74.150 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Heat, Kings (Brooklyn)

When: July 2, 12:00 PM EST to July 4, 5:00 PM EST
Where: Kings (Brooklyn) forecast zone
Reported by: AWOS,ASOS,MESONET,ETC
Coordinates: 40.634, -73.950 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Heat, Queens

When: July 2, 12:00 PM EST to July 4, 5:00 PM EST
Where: Queens forecast zone
Reported by: AWOS,ASOS,MESONET,ETC

Heat, Southern Westchester

When: July 2, 12:00 PM EST to July 4, 5:00 PM EST
Where: Southern Westchester forecast zone
Reported by: AWOS,ASOS,MESONET,ETC
Coordinates: 41.152, -73.753 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Heat, Orange

When: July 2, 12:00 PM EST to July 4, 5:00 PM EST
Where: Orange forecast zone
Reported by: AWOS,ASOS,MESONET,ETC
Coordinates: 41.402, -74.306 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Heat, Putnam

When: July 2, 12:00 PM EST to July 4, 5:00 PM EST
Where: Putnam forecast zone
Reported by: OFFICIAL NWS OBS.
Coordinates: 41.427, -73.749 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Heat, Rockland

When: July 2, 12:00 PM EST to July 4, 5:00 PM EST
Where: Rockland forecast zone
Reported by: BROADCAST MEDIA
Coordinates: 41.152, -74.024 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Heat, Northern Westchester

When: July 2, 12:00 PM EST to July 4, 5:00 PM EST
Where: Northern Westchester forecast zone
Reported by: OFFICIAL NWS OBS.
Coordinates: 41.152, -73.753 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Heat, Nassau

When: July 2, 12:00 PM EST to July 4, 5:00 PM EST
Where: Nassau forecast zone
Reported by: AWOS,ASOS,MESONET,ETC

Heat, Northwest Suffolk

When: July 2, 12:00 PM EST to July 4, 5:00 PM EST
Where: Northwest Suffolk forecast zone
Reported by: AWOS,ASOS,MESONET,ETC
Coordinates: 40.941, -72.685 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Heat, Northeast Suffolk

When: July 2, 12:00 PM EST to July 4, 5:00 PM EST
Where: Northeast Suffolk forecast zone
Reported by: AWOS,ASOS,MESONET,ETC
Coordinates: 40.941, -72.685 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Heat, Southwest Suffolk

When: July 2, 12:00 PM EST to July 4, 5:00 PM EST
Where: Southwest Suffolk forecast zone
Reported by: AWOS,ASOS,MESONET,ETC
Coordinates: 40.941, -72.685 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Heat, Southeast Suffolk

When: July 2, 12:00 PM EST to July 4, 5:00 PM EST
Where: Southeast Suffolk forecast zone
Reported by: OFFICIAL NWS OBS.
Coordinates: 40.941, -72.685 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

What these are

Heat: Heat below excessive heat criteria that still caused deaths, injuries or significant impacts.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

Every storm in New York in 2002 Every state in 2002 This day in weather history Warnings in New York, July 2002

Sources

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5301585, 5301586, 5301587, 5301588, 5301589, 5301590, 5301591, 5301592, 5301593, 5301594, 5301595, 5301596, 5301597, 5301598, 5301680.