I read the New York Magazine article yesterday. What caught my eye was the report that it was very hot in Natick on July 7 or 8, the weekend after July 4th. I checked. The high temperature was 82F - the average for July around Natick. If you have to exaggerate the temperature, what are the odds that anything else in the story is true?
It was unremittingly hot at the farm in Natick, Massachusetts, where 1,500 people had gathered on the Sunday after the Fourth of July.
I also looked up the temperature and it was about 80 that day after heat the previous week.