Heat across much of U.S. not normal for time of year
Roughly one-third of Americans are seeing midsummerlike temperatures this weekend, as heat and humidity roasts the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states, with some cities approaching or tying heat records Saturday. More than 38 million people were under a heat advisory Saturday afternoon.
In West Virginia, public health officials urged people to look out for symptoms of heat exhaustion. In Washington, D.C., officials activated heat emergency plans, opening splash parks and cooling centers. A runner in the Brooklyn Half Marathon — where organizers had warned participants of potential heat concerns — died Saturday morning, although it was not immediately clear if the weather had played a role.
Temperatures climbed across the Northeast on Saturday, on a track to reach projected peaks by 5 p.m. In some areas, including parts of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, windy or cloudy conditions kept temperatures from rising quite as high as forecast Saturday, but they were expected to climb today.
Memorial Day, the unofficial start of summer, is still more than a week away. But by the end of the weekend, more than half of all Americans will have experienced temperatures of 90 degrees or higher from a blast of hot air that started in the Southwest, swept across the eastern third of the country and will move through New England into Canada.
In many places, temperatures could be 20 degrees or more above what residents are accustomed to for this time of year. In Boston, for instance, the average temperature for the weekend before Memorial Day is typically in the high 60s — the high Saturday was 71. The forecast for Sunday includes a high of 96 degrees in the city.
“Definitely very abnormally warm temperatures expected tomorrow,” Torry Gaucher, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Boston, said Saturday.
Record highs for May 21 were tied Saturday afternoon in Islip, New York; Georgetown, Delaware; Worcestor, Massachusetts; and Atlantic City, New Jersey. In Trenton, New Jersey, a predicted high of 93 for Saturday would approach the record set in 1934, according to the forecasting service AccuWeather.
Washington, D.C., reached a high of 92, 3 degrees shy of the daily record.
Elsewhere in the country, the misery set in weeks ago. In drought-parched New Mexico, the largest wildfire in the state's recorded history is burning, months before the start of the peak fire season. Other blazes are driving evacuations and fears in Colorado, Arizona and Utah.