With dangerous heat hitting New York City, officials are adding more cooling centers, longer pool hours, and outreach teams working to keep families safe before the holiday weekend hits.
At a Glance
- A dangerous heat wave is arriving just as the holiday weekend kicks off.
- The city is rolling out emergency measures across all five boroughs to help keep people safe.
- Officials want families to think ahead — know where you’d go to cool off before you even leave the house.
- Cooling centers, outreach teams, and other resources are expanding fast citywide.
- Without some basic prep, officials warn, conditions could turn dangerous quickly.
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NYC Expands Cooling Centers, Pool Hours, and Emergency Outreach Ahead of July 4th Heat Wave
A dangerous heat wave is slamming into New York City right as we head into the Fourth of July weekend, and city officials say the time to prepare is now, not later.
Astonishingly, temperatures could feel like 112 degrees in some spots. The city is rushing to open more cooling centers, keeping pools open later, and urging every New Yorker to have a plan before stepping outside.
“I am asking every New Yorker to make a heat plan before the worst of this weather arrives,” Mayor Zohran Mamdani said in a new PSA. “The best protection against extreme heat is air conditioning. If you don’t have it at home, know now where you’ll go to stay cool.”
These new measures add to emergency steps already in place this week, including 21 COOL vans conducting wellness checks, real-time cooling center directions added to LinkNYC kiosks, and outreach to more than 75,000 businesses with guidance on protecting workers during extreme heat.
More Cooling Centers Are Opening Across NYC
From July 3 through July 5, the city is rushing to add a wave of new cooling centers on top of the hundreds already open.
Eight city buildings will be transformed into cooling centers, including the David N. Dinkins Municipal Building, Brooklyn Borough Hall, Queens Borough Hall, and Staten Island Borough Hall, all open from noon to midnight.
Ten library branches are also joining in:
- Brooklyn Public Library: Central, Brighton Beach, Saratoga, and Sunset Park
- New York Public Library: Grand Concourse, Countee Cullen, and Port Richmond
- Queens Public Library: Central, Jackson Heights, and Far Rockaway
Three Neighborhood Health Action Centers and the Javits Center round out the list.
To find relief when you’re out, more than 2,200 LinkNYC kiosks now show real-time walking directions to the nearest cooling center within a 10-minute walk. And if you’re just looking for a spray shower or another way to cool off outside, check the city’s Cool It! NYC map.
Pools Staying Open Later
The city’s nearly 50 outdoor pools are free and open daily from 11 am to 7 pm. During the heat emergency, the Olympic- and intermediate-sized pools are staying open until 8:30 pm, an hour and a half past their usual closing time.
Beaches are also free, with lifeguards on duty from 10 am to 6 pm. Officials are reminding swimmers to stay in designated areas and only enter the water when lifeguards are on duty.
Adults 18 and older can also pick up free spray caps at local firehouses to turn hydrants into makeshift neighborhood sprinklers.
More Help for Vulnerable New Yorkers
To reach the people most at risk in this heat, the city has deployed 21 COOL vans staffed by NYC Health + Hospitals medical professionals for wellness checks, electrolytes, sunscreen, meals (including vegetarian, kosher, and halal options), and rides to cooling centers or medical care. The city has also set up pop-up cooling stations for outdoor workers.
Mamdani’s asking New Yorkers to look out for each other, too. Check on your neighbors, especially older ones, and call 311 immediately if you see someone outside who looks like they’re in trouble. “This administration is using every tool we have to keep New Yorkers safe,” he said, “but the strongest city is one where neighbors look out for one another.”
Before you head out this weekend, take a minute to figure out where you’d go if you needed to cool off. As Mamdani put it, air conditioning is still your best defense against this kind of heat.
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