(NEW YORK) — The last holiday weekend of the summer is bringing scorching temperatures to a large portion of the U.S.
Seven states — from Texas to Minnesota to New Jersey — are under heat alerts Monday.
Regions from the Great Plains to the Great Lakes and the Northeast will experience record heat for the next several days.
Overall, at least 48 locations/cities could get close to record highs on Monday.
The Northeast is seeing its first true heat wave of the year, with high temperatures in the 90s through Thursday. This will be a significant change for metropolitan areas like New York City, which has only reached the 90s three days this year, none of which have occurred in the past month.
Washington, D.C., is expected to reach near-record temperatures in the coming days and could reach up to 100 degrees on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. That comes after Washington-Dulles Airport on Sunday tied an all-time hottest temperature for September at 99 degrees.
Other cities, like Detroit; Chicago; Minneapolis; Philadelphia; Richmond, Virginia; and Lubbock, Texas, will likely reach near record-breaking high temperatures over the coming days.
Among Sunday’s record highs, Duluth, Minnesota, saw its hottest September temperature on record at 97 degrees.
More than two dozen locations across America saw their hottest summer on record in 2023, according to records for June, July and August.
Record hot summers were recorded in major cities like Miami, New Orleans, Houston and Phoenix, which also experienced its driest summer on record, with just 0.12 inches of rainfall.
The states with the most cities recording their hottest-ever summer are Texas, at nine; Florida, with five; Louisiana, with four; and Alaska, at three. Mobile, Alabama, and San Juan, Puerto Rico, also saw their hottest-ever summers.
Major cities recording one of their top five hottest summers included Dallas; Austin, Texas; Tampa, Florida; Seattle; Minneapolis; Tucson, Arizona; and Albuquerque, New Mexico.
As the U.S. experiences extreme temperatures on land, warm ocean waters are helping to breed storms in the tropics.
A tropical system is currently developing from a wave of energy moving off Africa, which could create a storm moving through near the northern Caribbean islands by the weekend. After that, models are not in agreement if the system goes out to sea or possibly brings some impacts to the East Coast.
Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.