Tens of millions across the Midwest and the mid-Atlantic are under heat alerts Monday as a dangerous heat wave that began over the weekend continues to move through the region.
The rare June heat wave broke about 20 records Sunday and is expected to break more Monday. According to The Weather Channel, Mitchell, South Dakota, broke its daily high Saturday when temperatures climbed to 104 degrees Fahrenheit, smashing its previous record of 101 degrees.
Records were also set Saturday across Wyoming and Minnesota, according to the channel.
Across the Midwest to the East Coast, 160 million people were under heat alerts Monday. Extreme heat warnings have been issued for 75 million people in nearly a dozen major cities, including Chicago, Boston, New York City, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Detroit, Baltimore and Washington, D.C.
By midday, heat index values (what conditions “feel like” when humidity and air temperatures are combined) in several places in North Carolina and Virginia had already topped 110 F.
Chicago up to Boston could experience heat index values of 100 to 110 degrees.
“Hot temperatures, oppressive humidity and very light winds are expected today, leading to dangerous levels of heat,” the National Weather Service in Boston said on X. Tuesday will be “the hottest day of the stretch,” the agency said.
“Air temperatures in many areas could pass the century mark, and it may feel like the low 110s in some areas,” the agency said. “This is a dangerous level of heat, with no significant relief at night!”
New York City Mayor Eric Adams urged residents to take precautions.
“Our first heat wave of the summer is here, and it’s so important that New Yorkers across the five boroughs take care of themselves over the next few days,” he said on X. “That’s right. SEVERAL DAYS of EXTREME heat.”
While it’s difficult to make direct links between individual extreme weather events and climate change, studies have shown that global warming is making heat waves more frequent, more intense and longer-lasting. The trend is particularly concerning for people who work outdoors, children, the elderly and others who are most at risk of heat-related illness and death.
Relief from the sweltering temperatures will come on Wednesday in the Midwest and Thursday in the Northeast when the heat dome starts to weaken.
In other parts of the country, severe storms will impact regions from northern Kansas to Michigan on Monday, bringing damaging winds, large hail and possible tornadoes. From west Texas to southern Wisconsin, the storms will bring a risk of flash floods.
