
Tens of millions of people from the Ohio Valley to the Northeast are about to experience the first significant heat wave of the summer, and it has the potential to be not only record-breaking but also life-threatening.
The sweltering temperatures are the result of a massive ridge of high pressure that’s establishing itself over the eastern U.S., and temperatures are set to skyrocket into the 90s and approach the 100-degree mark in many cities. The humidity will make it feel even hotter, with feels-like temperatures soaring above 100 degrees.
And many of those cities haven’t seen heat like this in years.
The National Weather Service office in Mount Holly, New Jersey, was very blunt with its forecast – "It’s gonna be hot!"
The NWS said Philadelphia, Allentown and Reading in Pennsylvania are expected to see at least five consecutive days of 95 degrees or higher. That hasn’t happened in those respective cities since July 2022, August 1953 and July 2011.