A dangerous heat wave is tightening its grip on the East Coast and straining the electric grid as people seek to cool off in their air conditioned homes and businesses. The worst conditions are now underway, with many records already broken, as millions prepare to celebrate the Fourth of July outdoors.
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The most intense heat shifted into the Interstate 95 corridor Thursday and will persist through Friday. Temperatures climbed into the upper 90s and low 100s from Washington, DC, to Boston, with humidity pushing the heat index — what the air actually “feels like” to the body — above 110 degrees in spots.
At least 20 locations on Thursday broke or tied their record high temperature for the day.
Daily high records broken on Thursday:
• Washington National Airport in DC reached 102, breaking a record of 101 set in 1898
• Philadelphia reached 103, tying the record set in 1901
• Boston reached 101, breaking a record of 98 set in 1963
• Newark reached 104, topping its daily record of 102 set in 1966
• New York City’s Central Park reached 100 degrees, tying the record last set in 1966. This was also the first triple-digit reading the location has seen in 14 years.
More than 200,000 customers were without power amid the heat wave Thursday evening, including at least 19,000 Con Edison customers in the New York City metro area and stretching upstate, according to the utility’s outage map. While not all outages are heat related, it has left hundreds of thousands without air conditioning at the worst possible time. Con Edison says it is reducing voltage for parts of the Bronx and Manhattan to conserve energy during equipment repairs, and is asking customers to limit the use of air conditioners and energy-intensive appliances.
The heat is peaking during one of the year’s busiest periods of travel and outdoor celebration, prompting cities to expand cooling centers, shorten parade routes and activate emergency response plans ahead of America’s 250th birthday.
More than 160 million people are under “major” (Level 3 of 4) or “extreme” (4 of 4) heat risk through the end of the week, according to the National Weather Service. These categories are associated with a sharp increase in heat-related illnesses, especially during prolonged heat waves with little overnight relief.
The combination of temperatures and humidity increases the health risks: High humidity keeps temperatures elevated and prevents sweat from evaporating efficiently, making it harder for the body to cool itself.
Heat is the deadliest weather in the United States, with a higher annual average toll than tornadoes, hurricanes and lightning combined, according to the National Weather Service.
This heat wave is the result of an intense heat dome — a stubborn area of high pressure that locks hot air in place. It’s a phenomenon experts say is clearly supercharged by global warming.
Many cities, including Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, DC, and Raleigh, North Carolina, are opening cooling centers and expanding public resources as the dangerous heat settles in.
The federal government is also preparing for the strain. The Department of Energy has issued emergency orders aimed at reducing the risk of power outages by increasing electricity generation within the PJM Interconnection grid, which serves much of the Mid-Atlantic.
New York City is opening hundreds of cooling centers and deploying mobile medical vans to provide water, sunscreen and wellness checks. More than 2,200 LinkNYC kiosks will display directions to the nearest cooling center.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani posted on X to ask residents to set their AC to 78 degrees and unplug appliances to help conserve electricity and reduce the load on the grid.
Philadelphia has declared a heat health emergency through Saturday evening and shortened the route for its Fourth of July parade. A ceremony featuring a live virtual address from the pope has been moved indoors, and officials have reduced hours for the city’s World Cup fan festival ahead of Saturday’s match between Paraguay and France. Event organizers have also canceled Fourth of July and World Cup block parties.
Just outside of Philadelphia, Norristown, Pennsylvania, and Haddon Township, New Jersey, have also both canceled Fourth of July parades due to the heat.
Washington, DC, has activated an extreme heat alert through July 5 and is expanding cooling centers, hydration stations and emergency medical resources as hundreds of thousands of visitors descend on the nation’s capital for holiday events.
Organizers of National Mall celebrations are adding water stations, cooling tents and air-conditioned buses for attendees. Thursday night’s public rehearsal for PBS’s annual “A Capitol Fourth” concert has been canceled due to the excessive heat, the US Capitol Police said in a news release. Organizers will announce by 10 a.m. Friday whether the concert itself will be canceled.
The searing temperatures could also impact air travel: Delta Air Lines has issued a high heat advisory for New York’s LaGuardia Airport through July 4 “due to hot weather compounding with operational constraints.”
Amtrak has also warned that trains may see delays through July 4 if they have to run at reduced speeds due to the intense heat across the Northeast, Southeast and Midwest.
Dozens more long-standing temperature records are set to fall Thursday and Friday.
New York’s heat index hit 106 degrees in Central Park Thursday afternoon and could peak Friday. If it reaches 110 degrees, it would join only three other days since records began in 1943 with a heat index that high. The city is also forecast to reach consecutive triple digits Thursday and Friday for the first time since 2011, according to the National Weather Service.
Washington, DC, is forecast to reach around 103 degrees Friday, just shy of its all-time record high of 106 degrees. July Fourth in the nation’s capital is forecast to be the hottest on record at 103 degrees, beating the old record of 100 set in 1919. Thursday to Saturday may be the hottest three-day stretch in DC since 1930.
Philadelphia could climb to near 104 degrees Friday, while Boston is once again expected to get close to triple-digits.
In eastern Virginia, the weather service says this could be the region’s most significant heat wave since July 2012, which resulted in a dozen deaths in the state. That heat wave caused more than 30 heat-related fatalities across four states.
The biggest concern isn’t just the daytime heat: Nights are warming faster than days in our changing climate. Warm, humid nights will provide little relief, with temperatures only falling into the 70s in many locations and struggling to drop below 80 degrees in urban areas. Without cooler nights, the body has little opportunity to recover before another day of dangerous heat.
Some relief is expected to begin arriving across parts of the Midwest later in the holiday weekend before gradually spreading into portions of the Northeast. Much of the South, however, is expected to remain hotter than normal into next week.
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