Even trains move more slowly today – the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority warned this morning that trains could operate at a reduced speed to avoid any stress related to the tracks on the tracks.
The day started hot: just before 9 a.m. Tuesday, Chinatown’s temperature already pushed 90 degrees. Pablo Rodriguez Andrade, 44, wore a dark long -sleeved shirt and pants – his greening uniform of the greenway is not exactly summer wear.
Rodriguez Andrade crouched towards asphalt with his portable trash can and hung a few pieces of paper and candy packaging. For his use of trash at the Rose Kennedy greenway, he would be under the sun for the next eight hours.
How does the weather feel?
“Oh my god, horrible,” said Rodriguez Andrade, shaking his head laughing.
With an overwhelming heat dome that covers a large part of the northeast this week, the city said thermal emergency on Sunday, warning residents of dangerous conditions.
Climate change has made heat waves warmer and longer, and these weather events should only become more extreme in the future. In the middle of this century, the values of the heat index of more than 100 degrees should be three times more frequent in the northeast of the United States than it is currently, if the planet does not quickly stop the burning of fossil fuels, the main cause of climate change.
This week’s Heat Dome should keep the city dangerously hot until Wednesday. Heat is the main cause of death-related death in the United States, according to data from the National Weather Service, and experts say that the elderly and those working outside are particularly vulnerable. Symptoms of heat disease include headache, dizziness, nausea, confusion and hot skin.
The boss of Rodriguez Andrade told him that he could take 10 to 15 more minutes during his breaks today. Otherwise, it was as usual.
Half an hour later and a few houses of houses, Bryan Clifford, 45, was also fully faced. On Boylston Street of Maison St. Francis, it unpacking more than 1,000 boxes of paper products and cleaning the products from its delivery truck. It was still not yet at 10 a.m., and already the temperature had reached 91 degrees.
His face almost the shadow of his red shirt, Clifford raised the large brown boxes from the back of his delivery truck with a smile. He said he was fighting through, armed with six bottles of ice cream water he had thrown into the freezer the previous night.
“Honestly, I consider it any other day,” said Clifford, an independent entrepreneur whose delivery cases, Cliffy Enterprises, would do it throughout the city today. “I make money.”
Around 10:15 am, on the other side of the river in Cambridge, Billy Meyers, 52, lowered in the block of his temporary building. He was sweaty and held a pile of newspapers in hand.
“I couldn’t be there right now,” said Meyers about her room at the central house, an affordable men’s accommodation complex. “It’s warmer in there than there here.”
He has no air conditioning unit in the room.
So, instead of stifling inside, he caught a stack of spare change newspapers for sale. The street newspaper written by and for people without housing and low -income was founded in 1992. It sells them for $ 2 per room.
Meyers hoped to win at least $ 30 so that he can hide inside a nearby convenience store to escape heat.
“Once I have enough money, I’m just going inside and I sit for a while,” he said.
In the Massachusetts, the owners are held by the law to heat the living spaces above 68 degrees during the day and 64 degrees at night. But there is no similar regulation to keep the apartments cool during extreme heat. The owners are also not required to provide air conditioning.
“I certainly think that regulations are lacking,” said Patricia Fabián, associate professor in the environmental health department at the University of Boston who studied heat and public health.
“Anyone who has no air conditioning or cannot afford to pay air conditioning [is at risk]”Said Fabián.
Another concern is whether the air conditioning is to work: extreme heat can filter the electricity network as residents and businesses increase their air conditioners. When very high demand is approaching the electricity offer, the grid operators implement the terminals to avoid overloading the system.
On Tuesday, around 11:30 am, there was more request on the operator of the New England electricity network than typical, but the system worked widely, and no breadth was reported.
In the east of Boston around 11 am, Andres Betancur, 35, was held in a shaded corner in Maverick Square. Although the temperature at that time approached 100 degrees, it always looked like a reprieve of her hot apartment in the street, which does not have air conditioning.
“The heat is unbearable,” he said. To manage, he takes cold showers at home.
Because he works in demolition, the only way to stay cool at work is to enter cool and air -conditioned stores that are near his breaks.
Come back for updates.
Erin Douglas is contacted at Erin.douglas@globe.com. Follow her @ Erinmdouglas23. Ava Berger is contacted at Ava.berger@globe.com. Follow her @Ava_berger_. Jade Lozada can be contacted at jade.lozada@globe.com. Nathan Metcalf can be contacted at nathan.metcalf@globe.com. Follow it on Instagram @ natpat_123. Sabrina Shankman can be contacted in sabrina.shankman@globe.com.
