It\u2019s station hot 101.5.<\/p>\n
The Big Apple is burning with the mercury climbing to nearly triple figures on Wednesday and Thursday beneath the \u201cheat dome\u201d scorching the Northeast. <\/a><\/p>\n That day, Central Park reached a blistering 100-degrees for the first time in nearly 15 years<\/a>. To add insult to heat stroke, real-feel temps reached a face-melting 110 degrees thanks to the swampy humidity as officials warned commuters to stay cool and remain indoors.<\/p>\n There\u2019s no rest for the roasted \u2014 these sweltering conditions are expected to continue into Friday before dropping to a \u201cbalmy\u201d 95 on Saturday.<\/p>\n Unfortunately for millions of straphangers, escaping underground is like going out of the frying pan and into the fire. New York City subway platforms can often mirror that of the streets above \u2014 so smoldering influencers have even attempted to bake cookies underground<\/a> like train station teppanyaki. <\/p>\n Temperatures soared to nearly 100 degrees at 42nd Street. Stefano Giovannini<\/p>\n To find out just how oppressive conditions can really get below the surface, the Post visited some of the city\u2019s most infamously hot and heavily-trafficked stops on Thursday. We recorded platform surface temps using an Ambient Weather WS-HE01 Handheld Heat Stress meter to record air temperature, humidity and heat index, which combines humidity and temp to approximate how hot conditions feel on the skin.<\/p>\n Hot tracks<\/p>\n The feels-like temp clocked in at a searing 107.9 degrees F at the Lexington Ave \u2014 59th Street subway station.<\/p>\n Lexington Ave \u2014 59th Street platform:<\/p>\n The Lexington Ave \u2014 59th Street 6th train platform felt like a bao steamer with temps soaring to 95 degrees Fahrenheit and the humidity hitting 61%, roughly 20% more than at street-level.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, feels-like temps hit a swamp bottom-inducing 107.9 degrees \u2014 hotter than Death Valley\u2019s forecast high today, but with nearly 10 times as much humidity.<\/p>\n As rider Andrew, from the UK, told the Post, \u201cover 100 is crazy,\u201d adding that it was far \u201chotter\u201d than the London\u2019s tube.<\/p>\n Grand Central \u2014 42nd Street:<\/p>\n Marco Alfirev of Switzerland gets grilled at Grand Central with his two nieces. Stefano Giovannini<\/p>\n By contrast, Grand Central\u2019s 6th train platform felt pleasant, clocking in at a \u201ctemperate\u201d 89.9 degrees F and a feels-like temp of 96.3 degrees despite feels-like temps topping 60% humidity. For reference, that\u2019s on the lower end of an average day in the equatorial city of Singapore.<\/p>\n This sultry setting was too much for Swiss straphanger Marco Alfirev, who told the Post that he was \u201csweating like crazy\u201d and called it worse than Europe \u2014 save for the continent\u2019s recent record-breaking heat wave.<\/a><\/p>\n Times Square\u201342nd Street<\/strong><\/p>\n Their \u201cDeuce\u201d is cooked. The mercury eclipsed 91 degrees Fahrenheit on the Times Square \u2014 42nd street street platforms serving the 1, 2 and 3 lines while the heat index climbed above 103 degrees Fahrenheit.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s too hot, all the time,\u201d Skye Padovani, a commuter from New Jersey, told the Post while buzzing her face with a hand-fan. <\/p>\n 14th Street\u2013Union Square<\/strong><\/p>\n Mary Bace was sizzling on the 14 Street-Union Square subway platform. Stefano Giovannini<\/p>\n Not even an army of whirring fans could tame the searing conditions at 14th Street \u2014 Union Square, whose purgatorial L, 4, 5, and 6 train platforms frequently rank among the hottest in town.<\/p>\n On Thursday, it was char for the course: The regular temps hit 92.5 degrees Fahrenheit with the feels-like readings of 102 F, making waiting for the rails feel like roasting on an underground rotisserie.<\/p>\n Mary Bace said the skillet-like station was only a five-minutes away from her house but she was already \u201cdrenched\u201d and feared showing up to a job interview looking \u201csweaty and crazy.\u201d <\/p>\n Brooklyn Bridge\u2013City Hall<\/strong><\/p>\n Scott and Jessica prater boil alive at the Brooklyn Bridge \u2014 City Hall subway stop. <\/p>\n Stefano Giovannini<\/p>\n More like City Hell. Brooklyn Bridge\u2013 City Hall\u2019s 4,5,6 line platforms \u2014 another perennial contender for NYC\u2019s most sweltering stop \u2014 was comparatively comfortable, recording temps of just 89.6 degrees F and a heat index of 97.8.<\/p>\n Fulton Street<\/p>\n The same couldn\u2019t be said for the Fulton Street platform, where the mercury hit 93 F with a feels-like temp of nearly 100 degrees.<\/p>\n Departing the climate-controlled carriages, where temps hover in the mid-70s, felt like stepping from the \u201cSnowpiercer\u201d train onto a human hibachi.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s essentially like a layer of hell, like Dante\u2019s Inferno,\u201d Jose Ocampo lamented to the Post, adding that he didn\u2019t foresee conditions improving anytime soon.<\/p>\n Subterranean sweat lodge<\/p>\n Jada Lewis-Taliaferro and Jose Ocampo at the Fulton Street station on a sweltering Thursday. Stefano Giovannini<\/p>\n What\u2019s to blame for this subterranean sauna effect? <\/p>\n Experts say the subway is essentially a giant furnace: trains generate heat as they brake and accelerate, passengers contribute body heat, concrete traps and radiates warmth and the train\u2019s cooling systems \u2014 somewhat paradoxically \u2014 transfer the heat from the train to the tunnels, according to the Regional Plan Association (RPA).<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cSo much of operating the subway system involves generating more heat,\u201d Rachel Weinberger, the RPA\u2019s VP of Transportation told the Post. \u201cThe only thing that air conditioning does is it moves hot air from one space to another space, and it creates more heat in the meantime.\u201d<\/p>\n