Phew . . . Now That’s Hot!

It was so hot that we couldn’t help but read about it the following day:

On a day when the mercury climbed to 95 at Central Park and 99 at LaGuardia Airport, city dwellers dealt with blackouts in some spots, stalled subways and canceled flights.

“Where I live I can’t go to the pool because it’s so packed,” said lower East Sider Jennifer Osorio, 30, who trekked all the way to Harlem to take a dip.

There were so many swimmers at the pool at Tompkins Square Park on Avenue A that lifeguards were rotating them in and out of the water every 20 minutes.

And at Coney Island yesterday, bathers griped about all the trash strewn on the beach after a weekend that saw 1.7 million people flock to Brooklyn’s sandy cool spot.

“I picked up two hypodermic needles,” said Carol O’Donnell of Brooklyn, who took her 8-year-old granddaughter, Kara, to the famed beach.

City officials said the mess was due to five of the 23 giant beachcomber machines breaking down.

Residents and business owners staying inside under air conditioners consumed 12,869 megawatts of power, the second-highest figure in city history.

The power drain sparked a blackout at LaGuardia Airport, prompting Delta and American Airlines to cancel flights between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.

The 1, 2, 3, V and W trains were either stalled or diverted because of lost signal power between 9:16 a.m. and 10:59 a.m.

The city Emergency Medical Service saw heat-related calls spike from a normal of two a day to 42 yesterday.

In Astoria, Queens, 470 Con Edison customers were left in the dark, and 3,500 more were without juice in Westchester.

As manhole covers exploded and power lines caught fire, Michael Hardy of Astoria sat in his car with the air conditioning on. “I can’t get air conditioning inside my apartment,” he explained.