By: Felix Xie
The National Weather Service issued heat advisories for states on the East Coast. Now, it is day 7 of this heat wave.
The heat continued throughout the weekend, scorching the Mid-Atlantic from Washington, D.C., to New York. The National Weather Service declared the heat risk as “extreme,” accounting for the temperature and its untimely appearance.
Daily temperature records, some of which are older than a century, have been topped on Sunday. In the AC Airport, Philadelphia, temperature readings as high as 98 degrees toppled the previous record of 97 degrees, which was set in 1888. The high of 101 degrees in Reading, Pennsylvania, also beat the highest daily temperature record in the area, which was set in 1908 at 96 degrees. It was the first time that Reading had experienced triple-digit temperatures since July 8th, 2012.
The Washington area was also not spared from the heat wave. On Saturday, Baltimore’s new record of 101 degrees broke the previous record of 100 degrees, which was set in 1988, and on Sunday, the afternoon reading of 98 degrees broke the previously set 97 degree record from 2010. In Dulles, Va., the record temperatures of 100 degrees on Saturday and 98 degrees on Sunday beat the records that were set in 1988. In Arlington, Va., the 99-degree reading on Sunday surpassed the city’s 1988 record of 98 degrees.
The temperature in Trenton, N.J., reached 98 degrees on Sunday. The heat wave caused officials in some parts of the state, Pennsville Township, Moorestown, Vineland, Ridgewood, Denville, and Butler, to enforce mandatory or optional water restrictions for the heat wave, asking denizens to reduce their usage of water for recreational activities such as gardening, watering lawns, or washing cars.
However, the end of the heat wave that has rocked the United States and its records for over a week is in sight. The National Weather Service predicts that the heat wave will subside over the course of the week.
On Sunday morning, the Weather Service’s office serving Philadelphia posted, “[p]rolonged periods of heat around here usually end with a bang and that is what will happen later today.”
Heat wave relief has begun to arrive in parts of the country that were hit especially hard last week, signaling respite in the record-breaking heat wave. Throughout the weekends, Ohio Valley and the Midwest finally experienced lower temperatures.
The physical tolls of this heat wave are starting to show up. Heat-related emergency room visits spiked in areas 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.