Northeast under alert, temperature will rise in the middle of the Atlantic

There was no let-up in the sweltering heat wave that ravaged much of the eastern United States on Friday, with tens of millions of Americans under heat warnings.

Record temperatures hit much of New England and parts of the Midwest on Thursday, with 65 million people under a heat warning. Heat indices – which take temperature and humidity into account – reach between 100 and 110 degrees in some places.

Parts of the Northeast were expected to see some relief Friday, with highs in the 70s and 80s, according to the National Weather Service. But temperatures are forecast to rise in the mid-Atlantic, into the mid-90s on Friday and perhaps into the 100s on Saturday, “with record/breaking temperatures possible,” the meteorologist said.

Across the Ohio Valley, the NWS’s “thermal risk” index stayed at level 4 — labeled “extreme,” the highest available — for the next two days.

“This rare and/or long-lasting extreme heat, with little or no relief at night, affects anyone without effective cooling and/or adequate hydration,” he said, adding that it will likely affect “most healthcare systems, industries and heat-sensitive infrastructures.” .”

In another update on Thursday, the meteorologist advised people to “drink plenty of fluids, stay in an air-conditioned room, stay out of the sun and check on family and neighbors.”

Elsewhere, Governor Greg Abbott issued a disaster declaration for 51 Texas counties after the first named storm of the hurricane season, Alberto, made landfall in Mexico bringing heavy rain.

What makes this heat wave so punishing, forecasters say, is that nighttime lows are also stubbornly high, giving the body little time to recover from the day’s punishing conditions.

The Northeast in particular is not used to such high temperatures this time of year — with several daily highs recorded in Maine, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania — and the NWS warned that people without reliable air conditioning would wilt.

Thursday night rush hour commuters heading in and out of New York’s Penn Station were left sweating on trains without AC after a faulty circuit breaker caused a power outage, worsened by a fire in Secaucus, New Jersey. , WNBC reported.

Amtrak warned that high temperatures meant its trains would have to run at slower speeds on weekdays, anticipating delays of up to an hour.

The immediate cause of this heat wave is the jet stream that snakes northward and creates what is called a “heat dome” over the eastern US.

But Americans are far from the only ones suffering under these conditions – with a months-long heat wave in India killing more than 100 people and hundreds dying during the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca in the scorching heat.