With the seasonal solstice happening Thursday amid a weeklong heat wave expected for the East Coast and Midwest, summer 2024 is shaping up to be hot.
Extreme heat was forecast for Chicago, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Detroit, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Boston, New York City and Albany, New York.
Models show the heat could last through Friday and beyond.
“The duration of this heat wave is remarkable and may be the longest in decades for some locations,” the federal Weather Prediction Center said.
A high-pressure system called an upper ridge over the Ohio Valley is spreading across the Midwest and East Coast and will produce clear skies, warm, stable air and record temperatures in the 1990s and beyond, forecasters say.
According to the weather service, some areas will experience temperatures as high as 105 degrees Celsius. Forecasters say temperatures in many areas will be as much as 25 degrees above normal under the summer system.
New temperature records could be set from the Ohio Valley and Lower Great Lakes into the northern Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, the weather service said.
The National Weather Service office for Pittsburgh said it “could be the most impactful heat wave of the 21st century.”
Buffalo Public Schools said in a statement that it was implementing half days for four of the five days of the week. According to the schedule, 8th grade through 8th grade students can go home by the end of lunch.
Nights will likely bring some relief, with low temperatures in that quarter of the country dropping into the 60s and 70s, they said.
By early Monday, the National Weather Service had placed 71 million Americans under a heat advisory or excessive heat advisory, as individual parts of the country also expected to sweat.
On the northwest side of the heat, flash flooding could occur in the Dakotas and Minnesota on Monday, forecasters said. On the Southwest Side, rain was expected from the Gulf of Mexico in parts of Texas and Louisiana, possibly through Wednesday, they said.
The weather service is also watching for any tropical storms developing in the Gulf, the report said.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
