NYC's heat advisory has been extended through the weekend—what to know about the sweltering days ahead

If you were hoping today would be the end of our latest bout of swampy, sweat-through-your-shirt weather, we have some unfortunate news: the heat is sticking around.

The National Weather Service has extended its heat advisory for New York City through 8pm Saturday, as high humidity pushes feels-like temperatures into the 95-to-100-degree range. Actual highs will hover around the upper 80s and low 90s, but all that moisture in the air is doing the heavy lifting when it comes to making the city feel particularly brutal.

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“Whenever you combine the warm temperatures with extremely high humidity, that's when you get the feels like temperature up that high,” National Weather Service meteorologist Bryan Ramsey told Gothamist.

Friday comes with another wrinkle: thunderstorms. Scattered showers and storms are possible this afternoon and evening, with damaging winds and locally heavy rain potentially causing flash flooding. Saturday will be somewhat drier, though an isolated shower or thunderstorm remains possible—and, unfortunately, the humidity isn't going anywhere just yet. The National Weather Service's latest briefing calls for hot, humid weather and afternoon and evening thunderstorms through Saturday.

City officials have activated both heat and flash-flood emergency plans. Hundreds of cooling centers are open across the five boroughs, and COOL vans are being deployed to provide services including medical assistance and meals. New Yorkers can find their nearest cooling center through the city’s Cooling Center Finder or by calling 311.

And while this particular stretch might feel especially gross, extended heat is hardly foreign territory for New York. National Weather Service climatology defines a heat wave for its Central Park study as three or more consecutive days with highs of at least 90 degrees. Between 1876 and 2011, Central Park experienced 263 separate heat waves, or just under two per year; the longest on record lasted a whopping 12 days, from August 24 through September 4, 1953.

For now, the advice is pretty straightforward: drink plenty of water, limit strenuous outdoor activity during the hottest part of the day and seek out air conditioning when possible. And maybe don't count on a thunderstorm to cool things off—the city may still somehow remain a sauna afterward.