Summer Weather: Heat Wave to Bake Eastern States

(July 5) -- Temperatures are expected to top 100 degrees this week in cities from New York to Washington as an intense summer heat wave hits the Eastern Seaboard and brings hot and steamy weather to New England, the Midwest and southward to the Carolinas.

The National Weather Service has issued heat advisories and excessive heat warnings for today through late Wednesday in New York, New Jersey, southeastern Pennsylvania and Delaware, predicting that temperatures could spike to 102 degrees in some areas.

But the private forecasting firm AccuWeather.com says, "The heat wave just now beginning could last for seven days or more and would be one of the worst, early-summer heat waves on record."

Tina Fineberg, AP

Two beachgoers take in the sun at New York's Coney Island on Sunday.

The heat will be compounded by increasingly high humidity levels, the National Weather Service said, explaining on its website that "surface high pressure over the mid-Atlantic states will keep hot and increasingly more humid conditions across the area through mid-week."

Temperatures could reach 102 degrees in New Jersey, 101 in Philadelphia and near 100 in New York, where Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced 100 cooling centers would be open to provide relief for those who do not have access to air conditioning.

"The threat of heat exhaustion is real, and that's why we've opened these cooling centers, or will open them, at senior centers and Salvation Army community centers," the mayor said, according to WNYC Radio.

The heat wave presents a health threat that is of particular concern to the elderly, Bloomberg said.

The weather service advised people to "drink plenty of fluids, stay in an air-conditioned room, stay out of the sun and check up on relatives and neighbors." Those warnings were echoed by officials along the East Coast.

"Those at risk in the heat shouldn't wait for a warning," Philadelphia Health Department spokesman Jeff Moran said, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. "They could take precautions to avoid exertion when it's hot."

There will be little relief in many cities even after the sun goes down, as low temperatures are expected to dip only to the high 70s or 80-degree mark in urban areas.

A break from the extreme heat is expected after Wednesday, according to the weather service, which predicts warm weather to continue but 100-degree temperatures to back off to the 90s and 80s following the passage of a cold front later in the week.