A powerful and potentially historic heat wave has begun sweeping across the central United States and is expected to intensify as it spreads eastward this weekend, bringing triple-digit temperatures, stifling humidity, and widespread health risks.
The National Weather Service (NWS) has issued excessive heat warnings and watches across the Upper Midwest, Northern Plains, and Central Plains, warning that the heat will escalate through next week with the “hottest temperatures of the season” so far.
“Summer has taken its time arriving in the Northeast,” the NWS wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter. “But it’s coming in HOT. Triple-digit heat indices will be common through next week, with oppressive humidity.”
The sweltering conditions are expected to break daily records for both high temperatures and warm nighttime lows — the kind of heat that offers little relief even after sunset. On Friday night, June 20, record-high minimum temperatures are likely in parts of the Northern and Central Plains.
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