A brutal heat wave is set to persist Thursday as more than 140 million Americans from coast-to-coast are under heat alerts, with parts of the Northeast expected to sizzle under their highest temperatures this year.
Dangerously high temperatures are creeping east into parts of the Midwest and Northeast over the next two days after extreme heat consistently smashed record highs in southern states in recent weeks.
“Low temperatures will range mostly from 75 to 80, with lower 70s in the far outlying suburbs. Coupled with elevated humidity this will make for uncomfortable conditions at night,” especially in New York City and northeast New Jersey, forecasters at National Weather Service in New York City said.
The looming threats have triggered officials to take a series of preventive steps aimed at reducing the harmful impacts of extreme heat, which kills more people than any other irregular weather event in the US.
Heat indices – a measurement of what the temperature feels like when accounting for relative humidity – are expected to top 100 degrees Fahrenheit across many areas in the Northeast and the Midwest.
Here’s how some places are bracing for potentially record high temperatures:
As temperatures spike, PJM Interconnection – the nation’s largest power grid system – has declared an emergency alert. The move activates all systems to be online, including those with planned outages.
PJM coordinates electricity for more than 65 million people in all or parts of Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Washington, DC, according to its website.
President Joe Biden is expected to announce actions to combat extreme heat in a briefing Thursday morning as the dangerous heat wave expands across the US.
Extreme heat from coast-to-coast
The oppressive temperatures have put entire states under heat alerts.
Missouri, Iowa, Indiana in the Midwest are all under heat advisories while New Jersey is seeing a combination of heat advisories and excessive heat warnings, according to the NWS. Most of Illinois, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma are also under heat advisories.
Heat alerts are also in effect for parts of Southern California and Arizona.
In the south, heat indices continued to break records Wednesday.
On Wednesday afternoon, Miami hit a heat index of 102 degrees, marking the city’s 46th consecutive day with the heat index exceeding 100.
El Paso hit a high temperature of about 107 degrees on Wednesday, which continues their streak of consecutive days of high temperatures over 100 to 41 days. The city is expected to exceed 100 degrees – again – on Thursday.
Phoenix reached 118 degrees, extending its streak to 27 consecutive days with a high temperature exceeding 110. The city also saw 17 consecutive days of low temperatures above 90 degrees.