Abnormal temperatures seen across most of the country this weekend
Roughly one-third of Americans are seeing midsummer-like temperatures this weekend, as heat and humidity began to roast the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic States on Saturday, potentially setting hundreds of daily heat records. More than 38 million people were under a heat advisory Saturday afternoon.
In West Virginia and New Hampshire, 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 temperatures had played a role.
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 peak fire season.
Parts of Texas, where heat-intensified wildfires burned 30 structures near Abilene this week, saw their earliest triple-digit temperatures on record this month. San Antonio has hit 100 degrees four times in May, more than it did in all of 2021. Dallas-Fort Worth reached 95 degrees for a fourth consecutive day Friday, making it the longest streak of such high temperatures recorded this early in the year.
And in a sign of just how strange things could get, Denver whiplashed from 90-degree weather this week to a late-spring snowfall overnight Friday into Saturday.
Memorial Day, the unofficial start of summer, is still more than a week away. But by the end of this weekend, more than half of all Americans will have experienced temperatures climbing to 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 this weekend through New England and even into Canada.
Meteorologists warned that scores of heat records could be tied or broken in some 20 states.
In many places, temperatures could be 20 degrees or more above what residents are accustomed to this time of year. In Boston, for instance, the average temperature for the pre-Memorial Day weekend is typically in the high 60s; on Sunday, forecasts show a high of 95 degrees.
In Richmond, Virginia, on Saturday, temperatures climbed to the mid-90s as the city held its annual outdoor Boulder Bash, a competition that brought some of the nation’s top professional climbers together.
In Baltimore, temperatures peaking at 94 degrees were expected to drop to 90 in time for the horses running in the Preakness Stakes.