The official Central Park temperature didn’t mirror what most New Yorkers were feeling during Day Six of the brutal conditions baking the Big Apple, the National Weather Service said Wednesday.
The mercury only reached 89 degrees inside the urban oasis on Tuesday —- technically ending the city’s heat wave — even as the NWS recorded high temperatures of 94 and 93 degrees, respectively, at LaGuardia and JFK airports.
“I would say for most of the area, the temperature reached 90 degrees,” NWS meteorologist Gary Conte said.
Meanwhile, the stifling weather stretched into a seventh day, with Central Park topping out at 90 degrees Wednesday afternoon, while LaGuardia reached 94 but JFK peaked at just 87.
The Central Park thermometer is located amid an array of automated, computerized monitoring gear next to the landmark Belvedere Castle.
Conte said the NWS has been using the site since 1868 and will continue doing so to maintain the “historical record” — even though it’s surrounded by temperature-lowering trees and other greenery.
Amateur meteorologist and ad exec Dave Edwards said he understood the need to keep the Central Park thermometer “because it’s been there forever,” but said a second Manhattan location — like Bryant Park — was needed to reflect reality.
“You can count on Central Park being five degrees cooler than the rest of Manhattan,” said Edwards, who goes by the Twitter handle @weatheredwards.
Park-goers said it made no sense to measure the temperature there, noting that it was the best place on the island to beat the heat.
“Once we get hot, we immediately come back here to the trees and shade,” said tourist Courtney Sartini, 23, an organic farmer from Rhode Island.
“Perhaps an average reading would be optimal,” she added, suggesting that “they should put a few stations in the streets.”
Barry, a 69-year-old Upper West Side resident, noted that “compared to downtown, the minute you hit the trees, the temperature changes. You can feel it. “
“The trees give us this relief. Without the trees we’d be boiling on this concrete island,” he said.
Cooler temperatures are on the way, according to Accu-Weather, which predicted a high of 89 degrees on Thursday, followed by a late-night thunderstorm leading to high temperatures in the low- to mid-80s through Monday.