Rockaway Beach reopens amid heat wave after shark scare

Thousands of New Yorkers flocked to the recently shark-plagued Rockaway Beach to cool off Sunday as temperatures soared to a muggy 94 degrees during the ongoing heatwave.

Swimming was re-opened at the scenester shoreline in Queens amid the summer swelter following a shark scare that shuttered the beach Saturday.

Brave beach-goers took a refreshing plunge — while keeping an eye out for the man-eaters in light of Saturday’s shark sightings and a recent rash of local attacks.

“It just makes me a little cautious about the water,” said Frieda Guiden, 32, of The Bronx, who took a dip with her 5-year-old daughter. 

“I’m just being more mindful of the kids, not just my kid, but all the kids that are around me.”

Another swimmer, Linda, of East Elmhurst, described a method to avoid getting chomped at the hotspot.

“This is the thing: I don’t go in deep unless there’s people in front of me, so if there’s a shark —  no offense — it gets them first,” she said. 

“So I have to have people around me if I’m going deep. If I’m alone, I’m not going deep.”

Others packed the Big Apple’s hipster Rivera to beat the heat with hammock-equipped tents, umbrellas and coolers full of drinks. 

“I’d take off my skin if I could, but instead I put on a bathing suit and go to the beach,” said Jocelyn Clark, 20, of Bushwick. 

“It’s just too hot for me. But if I’m going to go outside, it has to be in close proximity to the water.”

Sunday marked the sixth day of an oppressive heat wave that sent temperatures in the city into the mid-90s.

The sky-high temperatures had been projected to tie the city’s record of 97 degrees in 2010, but stopped rising at around 3 p.m., when some clouds rolled in, FOX Weather meteorologist Marissa Lautenbacher told The Post.

“Some clouds started to come in and shielded the city from the most intense rays,” she said. 

The extreme humidity still unleashed an oppressive sizzle that made the city feel more than 100 degrees.

“It’s really uncomfortable out there, the air feels like soup,” Lautenbacher said.

But the scorching heat is expected to break Monday, which is forecast to be cloudy with a high of 89 and a low of 82 degrees, she said.

“It is going to feel a lot more comfortable with less of that soupy feeling,” Lautenbacher said, adding a cold front will come in on Sunday night.  “It will make it much easier for your body to cool off.”

Tuesday is expected to be even cooler with a high of 86 and a low of 72, she said.

On Saturday, the Parks Department closed Rockaway Beach for swimming on one of the year’s hottest days, citing “multiple sightings” of sharks.

“Yesterday we saw the fin and we asked everybody to come in. It actually got pretty close,” a Rockaway Beach lifeguard told The Post Sunday. 

“We normally see dolphins, but they’re really far and you’ll normally see them diving. With a shark, they kind of have a more pointy fin,” he said.  “If we see one, we’ll clear the beach for 30 minutes to an hour, and if there’s not another sighting we’ll let people back in.”

Some were hesitant to take a dip Sunday after at least six people — including surfers and swimmers and swimmers — were bitten by sharks on Long Island in the past month.