How Do You Know It’s Summer in New York City?

1. You can feel the heat of the pavement through your shoes.

2. You shake your head at tourists wearing flip-flops on blazing Manhattan sidewalks, and wonder how long it will take for all those blisters to heal.

3. There is so much humidity that you can take a shower before you leave the house and another one right after you step outside.

4. 90 degrees F here feels like 100 degrees F in more normal places.

5. You refer to the 42nd Street/Times Square subway station as “The Broadway Steam Bath.”

6. You are happy to take a subway home, just to take advantage of the air-conditioning.

7. Every weekend, on every southbound subway car, there is at least one family carrying a beach ball, rubber fins, snorkel gear, radios and/or and tote bags. Some of them are singing very loudly and off-key, usually some song that makes every nerve in your body go ker-PLATT. You are dying to see if it is possible to get a punctured beach ball to fly around the car, preferably along with the kid holding it.

8. The ladies in your Bronx, Brooklyn or Queens neighborhood are walking around looking like this:

9. The guys look like this:

10. The women wish they would look like this: