By Tyler Clifford
NEW YORK CITY (Reuters) – U.S. cities will break decades-old temperature records this week as a heat wave extends from central to eastern parts of the country, the National Weather Service said on Tuesday, with officials warning this could become a deadly weather event.
With about 80 million people from Indiana to New England under a heat advisory or extreme heat warning, New York Governor Kathy Hochul has activated the state’s Emergency Operations Center in response to high temperatures expected to last through the weekend.
“This is a deadly event,” she said, a day after the city of Syracuse reached a temperature of 34.4 degrees Celsius, a record set in 1994. “We’ve seen snowstorms, we’ve seen floods, we’ve had hurricanes, we have had tornadoes, but this heat event will likely cause more deaths.”
The state’s beaches and public pools will open early so people can enjoy them Wednesday during the Juneteenth holiday, she said.
Chicago recorded 97 degrees at Chicago O’Hare International Airport on Monday, breaking a previous record of 96 degrees set in 1957. Cleveland also set a record.
Detroit and Philadelphia, as well as cities in New Hampshire, Connecticut and Maine, are also expected to see record temperatures in the coming days, NWS meteorologist Marc Chenard said.
While it’s too early to say whether the heat is caused by climate change, this wave has come earlier than others. Central Maine is 30 degrees above average, he added.
“It’s quite early in the season to be experiencing such a long heat wave in the Ohio Valley and New England,” Chenard said. “That’s really the biggest danger or risks from this event.”
The sweltering – and record – heat started Thursday just days before the official start of summer and is expected to continue for the rest of the week
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer took to social media to ask residents to look out for their neighbors, especially the elderly who are more vulnerable to the heat.
“Make sure you check on your friends, family and neighbors to make sure they are okay,” she wrote.
(Reporting by Tyler Clifford in New York and Rich McKay in Atlanta; Editing by Josie Kao)
