HILL CITY, Kansas/CHICAGO/NEW YORK — This Wednesday, sweltering record temperatures have extended from the Midwest to the eastern United States. These heat warnings could affect millions through the July 4 holiday weekend, coinciding with America’s 250th anniversary celebrations.
Forecasters predict that the intense heat will drive “real-feel” temperatures to range between 100 and 115 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 to 46.1 degrees Celsius) in many areas. This surge poses a heightened risk of heat-related illnesses among vulnerable groups and may strain power grids already under pressure from increased demands by data centers and electric vehicle usage.
In the small high plains town of Hill City, Kansas, situated 270 miles east of Denver, Sabrina Hooper faces the challenge of working as a mail carrier amidst these extreme temperatures, having just started the job a week ago.
“The heat is absolutely crippling,” shared Hooper, 34, who spends her days traversing up to 10 miles to deliver parcels. Fortunately, she finds some respite from sprinklers: “It’s delightful. I can remove my hat, let it soak, and put it back on.”
Back in 2012, Hill City held the title of the hottest location in the U.S. for five consecutive days during another extreme heatwave, with heat indexes soaring to a blistering 108 degrees.
The heat index measures how it feels when humidity is factored into the air temperature.
Dana Robles, who lives in Brownsville, Texas, a city just off the Gulf Coast at the US-Mexico border, worried on Wednesday about the mounting costs of cooling her home as the heat index rose to 108 degrees. During peak temperatures, her family’s monthly power bill can exceed $300, which is nearly one-third what they pay for rent.
Robles also fears blackouts due to the overtaxed power grid.
“I’m scared the electricity is going to go off all day and our food is going to get spoiled,” she said.
In Chicago, high-school science teacher Michelle Klein, 57, had started preparing for the heat over the weekend. She filled her car with gas, did her weekly grocery shopping early, stocked the refrigerator with extra cold drinks and gave her plants a deep soak.
“The basil was being a diva and needed another drink of water this morning,” Klein said on Tuesday evening after going on her usual evening walk despite the 103-degree heat index.
In the city’s suburbs, property investor Amy Kaspar got an urgent call Monday night from a tenant whose air conditioner was only blowing out warm air.
Kaspar discovered that the appliance was working fine – it simply could not keep up with cooling the tenant’s unit, given the intense heat and humidity.
“Combined with the wind, it feels like standing behind the exhaust of a bus right now in Chicago,” said Kaspar, 50.
Cooling centers and check-ins
Chicago’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications urged residents on Wednesday to periodically check in with relatives, neighbors, seniors and other vulnerable populations. If contact cannot be made, the office said, Chicagoans can request a well-being check from the city by calling 311.
The scorching US temperatures mirrored those in western Europe, which recently has been engulfed in its own record-breaking heatwave, an event scientists said would have been “virtually impossible” without human-caused climate change.
Scientists have confirmed through years of studies that greenhouse gas emissions are making heatwaves around the world both more likely and intense.
The extreme heat only began creeping into New York City as of Wednesday morning, by which point the city had opened hundreds of cooling centers and deployed more than a dozen “cool vans” equipped with water, electrolytes, sunscreen and meals for New Yorkers in need of relief, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said at a press conference.
Air conditioning was on full blast at a senior center in Harlem on Wednesday, where a sign in 13 languages advertised the space as a “cooling center” for the public.
The senior center’s director, Richard Allman, said it would remain open beyond its usual hours over the July 4 weekend.
“We try to make this a comfortable place for people on an extra-hot day,” he said.
Ahead of the heatwave, city leaders had asked operators of signs in the city’s iconic Times Square to reduce the brightness of their billboards to lower energy consumption, and requested that businesses set thermostats no lower than 78 degrees.
The city’s energy provider, Con Edison, urged customers to limit energy use from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m.
The city has also extended public pool hours, opened additional cooling centers in libraries and municipal buildings, and expanded street outreach efforts.