Heat continued on Sunday to scorch the Mid-Atlantic and the densely populated region from Washington, D.C., to New York, where the National Weather Service ranked the heat risk as “extreme” when accounting for the high temperatures and their unseasonably early arrival.
Daily temperature records — some more than a century old — continued to fall. In Philadelphia, a reading of 98 degrees beat the record, 97, set in 1888. The high of 101 degrees in Reading, Pa., also beat the daily record, which had been set in 1908 at 96 degrees. It was also the first time that Reading had experienced triple-digit temperatures since July 2012.
The Washington area had record-breaking temperatures two days in a row. On Saturday, Baltimore’s high of 101 degrees broke the record of 100 set in 1988, and on Sunday, an afternoon recording of 98 surpassed the 97-degree record for the day, set in 2010. In Dulles, Va., the temperatures of 100 degrees on Saturday and 98 on Sunday beat records set in 1988. And in Arlington, Va., a 99-degree reading on Sunday surpassed the city’s 1988 record. (June of that year was especially brutal for the capital region, as the extreme heat then heralded a broiling and deadly summer.)
In Trenton, N.J., the temperature reached 98 degrees on Sunday. The heat wave prompted officials in some parts of the state, including Pennsville Township, Moorestown, Vineland, Ridgewood, Denville and Butler to announce mandatory or optional water restrictions, asking residents to refrain from washing their cars or watering their lawns.
But the end of the heat wave that gripped much of the United States over the past week is in sight. The Weather Service predicts that the heat wavewill begin to subside early this week.
Thunderstorms were forecast for parts of the Mid-Atlantic on Sunday afternoon.
“Prolonged periods of heat around here usually end with a bang and that is what will happen later today,” the service’s office serving the Philadelphia area posted on X on Sunday morning.
Relief has begun to arrive in other parts of the country that were hit hard last week, signaling a dip in the heat that’s still gripping the Mid-Atlantic. In New England, record-breaking temperatures have already receded, and Sunday brought lower temperatures to the Ohio Valley and the Midwest.
In Detroit, the heat index fell from a high of 95 degrees on Saturday to 87 degrees by midday Sunday, a more normal level for this time of year. In Cleveland, the heat index fell from a high of 97 degrees on Saturday to 83. And in Chicago, the heat index declined from a Saturday high of 96 degrees to 83 degrees on Sunday.
The health consequences of this heat wave are starting to become clear. Heat-related emergency room visits spiked in regions of the United States that were hit hardest by the heat wave last week, according to a tracker by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
