The National Weather Service he said Record highs were expected to be tied or broken in the Northeast on what he called a “Sultry Sunday.” The high humidity pushed heat indices — the temperature the air feels like — above 100 degrees, a departure from the Northeast's relatively mild start to summer.
“The 'Dog Days of Summer,'” Weather Forecast Center he said“it's definitely here.”
excessive heat, expected to continue until early this week, is another warning sign that climate change is increasingly jeopardizing what is traditionally associated with relaxing summer vacations. Temperatures are rising, wildfires are becoming more intense and droughts are becoming more frequent – a dramatic change from previous generations, scientists say.
Wildfires have burned thousands of acres in California in July. This weekend, fire officials said thousands of people were evacuated as “explosive fire behavior” made it difficult for crews to contain a wildfire that had burned more than 14,000 acres near Yosemite National Park.
Former Vice President Al Gore, a high-profile climate change activist, said Sunday on ABC News' “This Week With George Stephanopoulos” that scientists have been predicting such extreme weather events for decades.
“And the fact that they were dead right, maybe a little conservative even in their predictions, should make us pay more attention to what they're warning us about now,” he said. “They say that if we don't stop using our atmosphere as an open sewer and if we don't stop these heat-trapping emissions, things are going to get a lot worse.”
Asked by co-host Jonathan Karl whether President Biden should declare climate change a national emergency, Gore said: “Mother Nature has already declared it a global emergency.” He said he would leave it to others to weigh the pros and cons of such a presidential statement, but called for action, including curbing emissions and halting drilling on public land.
In Europe, a heat wave has killed more than 1,000 people in Portugal and prompted Seville, Spain to begin naming the phenomenon a hurricane. said the mayor of Seville Reuters in June that she would be the first “in the world” to take such a step. On Sunday, a press release from the Atlantic Council think tank said the city would see dangerous temperatures from “Heat Wave Zoe” through Tuesday. The Atlantic Council's Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Center for Resilience advises the city on how to handle climate change and its impacts.
In some U.S. cities, this weekend's extreme heat caused changes to major events due to safety concerns. The Boston Triathlon, originally scheduled for Sunday, has been postponed until late August.due to the current heat emergency.” The New York triathlon and biathlon went ahead as scheduled on Sunday, but organizers shortened the cycling and running portions of the race.
“The safety of our athletes and everyone in attendance is our top priority,” New York City Triathlon organizers he said.
New York City officials turned public spaces into cooling centers and offered spray caps for fire hydrants, which are meant to reduce the amount of water released if people turn on hydrants to stay cool. The city's National Weather Service station he said the weekend would be the region's “hottest weekend of the year so far” and he warned temperatures would climb into the 90s and could be even higher.
The medical examiner's office on Saturday reported a heat-related death, according to the New York Times. If the city's heat wave lasts until Monday, it would match a similar stretch of seven days in 2013, when heat indices reached at least 95 degrees every day.
In Newark, the temperature hit 100 degrees Sunday for the fifth straight day, the longest streak of temperatures over 100 degrees since records began in 1931, according to NWS in New York. The 100-degree temperature was also a daily record high for the city, the Weather Service said.
Boston also reached 100 degrees Sunday afternoon, surpassing the daily high record set in 1933 at 98 degrees. The Weather Service said. The last time the city had a day at or above 100 degrees was in June 2021.
Excessive heat can be dangerous, making it difficult for the body to cool down and potentially causing a fast pulse, nausea or loss of consciousness. Unsafe temperatures are forcing people up and down the Atlantic coast to figure out how to protect themselves.
Susan Driscoll, 58, said she was running earlier than usual to avoid the Boston heat. The photographer and personal trainer captured an image of the sunrise at Paul Revere Park on Saturday morning.
“The miles are down and the pace is down” because of the heat, she said, adding that she's “listening to her body” this weekend.
“I didn't have any races or anything on the agenda, thank God, because I might have gone out and walked it,” Driscoll said.
Philadelphia hit a high of 98 degrees on Sunday and was set to be under an extreme heat warning until Monday night. Fire Department urged residents not to use fire hydrants to cool off; he warned that turning on the faucets could cause damage to them and nearby property and people. He encouraged residents to find public pools and spray parks. The city has also opened a “hotline” for residents to call for health and safety advice.
D.C. was bracing for triple-digit temperatures for the first time since 2016. In response, the city extended hours at public pools, opened cooling centers and expanded the number of beds in homeless shelters to give people a cool place to sleep.
The high for DC on Saturday was 93, according to the Capital Weather Gang. The city dipped below a record temperature Sunday afternoon, but the heat index was near 105 degrees.
The heat wave is especially challenging for some residents in the Northeast, where air conditioning is not as ubiquitous as in other parts of the country.
Lucia Santacruz from Brooklyn spent part of Saturday handing out food in a building that had no air conditioning. Afterward, she said, she was exhausted.
“I ran home to the air conditioner,” said Santacruz, 24, “and then I fell asleep.”
Santacruz, who works on sustainability and affordable housing at a nonprofit organization, said the heat forced her organization to reschedule a Thursday tour of the rooftop solar panels. Instead of doing the tour, he said, “I sent some resources to people on how to stay cool.”
Lauren Kinsley said she has been working from her Manhattan home for the past few days to avoid the heat.
“I only have one air conditioner in my apartment — one window unit — but I try to keep costs down,” Kinsley, 32, said. went out to get coffee. And I came back drowned.”
Kinsley said she plans to go see “Mrs. Harris is going to Paris” to a movie theater this weekend, in part because it means she'll be in an air-conditioned space.
“But you have to brave the heat to get there,” he said.
Many cities will remain under heat warnings through Sunday night and some into Monday with temperatures above 100 degrees. But the Northeast will start to see milder temperatures early this week, according to the Weather Forecast Center.
Praveena Somasundaram and Laura Reiley contributed to this report.
