Record-breaking temperatures forecast as heat wave blasts across U.S.

Tens of millions of Americans are living under extreme heat warnings and warnings as forecasters warn of “dangerously hot” over the next 24 hours.

“Multiple record highs are forecast to be bound and/or broken today in the Northeast,” the National Weather Service said in a Sunday bulletin on the expected heatwave. will last through Tuesday. Taking into account humidity, the bulletin said mercury could reach between 105 and 110 degrees Fahrenheit.

Extreme heat warnings have been issued for large swaths of Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey, the bulletin said.

“Excessive heat and humidity significantly increases the likelihood of heat-related illnesses, especially for people who work or participate in outdoor activities,” according to the National Weather Service.

From the Southern Plains to the Northeast, the heat will feel “extremely oppressive,” especially in Washington, DC, New York City and Boston, the NWS said. tweet. In Boston, forecasters had predicted a peak of 99 degrees, which would break daily records.

There has been one death from the heat in New York. The city’s chief medical examiner said hypertensive cardiovascular disease and pulmonary emphysema were listed as contributing conditions. No other details about the victim were immediately available.

In a later news release, the NWS said 85 million Americans were given extreme heat warnings and heat warnings on Sunday. In the US, heatwaves kill more people annually than any other type of weather phenomenon.

The sweltering heat is also extending from central Kansas and Oklahoma to the Middle Mississippi valley, where there have been multiple high-temperature announcements and some extreme heat warnings, the NWS said.

Temperatures could soar as high as 111 degrees in parts of Oklahoma, including Tulsa, and thermometers could hit the hundreds in Las Vegas and many cities in Texas.

Southern and western states have been particularly hard hit with flash droughts. According to the US Drought Monitor, more than 63.2% of the country is currently “extraordinarily dry”, affecting livestock and agricultural products.

Farther north and west, “daily record highs” are possible from Northern California to the Portland and Seattle metro areas next Tuesday and a “prolonged heatwave” set to kick in. Sunday and peaked in the second half of the week, the NWS said.

The latest weather warning comes after multiple heat emergencies were declared earlier this week, including in Philadelphia, where air-cooled buses were parked and public libraries extended hours for people to cool off from the heat. Boston and Washington have activated similar plans.

Kim Knowlton, clinical assistant professor of environmental health sciences at Columbia University, told NBC News earlier this week: “Climate change is driving these terrible heat waves almost beyond belief. and we are still not used to them.

Alex Ruane, a researcher at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, told Reuters that as the world warms, “it takes fewer natural anomalies to push us into extreme heat categories.”

“Because we’re close to those thresholds, you’re more likely to get more than one heatwave at a time. We are seeing this in the United States,” she said.

Forecasters say conditions will remain largely the same until Monday night, when a frigid front is expected to bring some relief to the Northeast and Midwest.

But they added that “unusually hot temperatures” will persist throughout the week – and possibly early next week in parts of the southern Delta.