Eastern Heat Wave Could Break Records Day and Night

Spring is about to feel more like summer for more than 100 million people along and east of the Mississippi. A dome of heat and humidity is pushing from the Midwest to the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic through Wednesday, driving highs into the 90s and making late May feel more like mid-July for cities from Richmond to Albany. Forecasts call for possible record or near-record highs, including 97 in Richmond, mid-90s around Washington, DC, and Philadelphia, and about 95 in Hartford, per the Washington Post. More high temperature records could be broken from Missouri to New Jersey, per Fox Weather. You can check the forecasted highs in your area using maps shared by USA Today.

The warmth will even stick around after dark. Nighttime lows are expected to challenge records at roughly 160 locations, with New York City possibly bottoming out around 74 degrees Tuesday night—warmer than the city's typical daytime high for this point in May, per the Post. The sultry air will help power severe storms in the Plains and Midwest before a cold front knocks temperatures down along most of the East Coast by Thursday; high heat and humidity are projected to linger in the Southeast. Longer term, scientists say steadily rising humidity, driven by warming temperatures and, in the East, hotter Atlantic waters, is lengthening the season of sticky, health-risking days.