A Northeast heat wave will finally wrap up Wednesday with more summerlike 90s after tying or breaking all-time May records in a few places, including Philadelphia.
Records Already Set
Wednesday daily records that have been tied or broken so far are in Philadelphia and Georgetown, Delaware, which both hit 95.
Among the over one dozen daily record highs Tuesday in the East were three cities who either tied or set new records for the entire month of May.
Philadelphia soared to 98 degrees, topping their previous record of 97 degrees set from May 30-31, 1991. That’s also 11 days earlier than that standing May record in Philly and either as hot or hotter than their hottest temperature recorded in 11 of the past 13 years since 2013.
Newark, New Jersey (99) and Reading, Pennsylvania (97) also tied their May monthly record highs Tuesday.
Boston (96) had their hottest May day since May 31, 1944, just one degree off their all-time May record from 1880.
On Monday, Erie, Pennsylvania (90), and Syracuse, New York (91), had their first high in the 90s of the year, just four days after shivering with a high of only 51 last Thursday.
Slow-Moving Sizzle
A zone of sinking air moving eastward at a turtle’s pace began in the West earlier last week and was responsible for record warmth from coast-to-coast. This temporary bubble of high pressure has set up near the East Coast, and coupled with warm southwesterly winds, is sending temperatures soaring in much of the East.
Forecast
The map below shows where we may have more daily record highs in the East, Wednesday, including over 20 cities from North Carolina to Maine.
Highs on Wednesday will soar well into the 90s as far north as Boston.
Where daily record highs are forecast Wednesday in the East.
Heat alerts remain in place for Boston, New York City and Philadelphia. Heat indices, or feels-like temperatures, could reach the mid- to upper 90s.
(MORE: 5 Things To Know About Staying Safe In A Heat Wave)
One small solace of this forecast is it will only be modestly humid in the Northeast, with dew points only as high as the 50s or 60s expected, rather than the oppressive 70s often found in summer.
(MORE: What Does The Dew Point Mean?)
Relief!
Though accompanied by showers and thunderstorms, relief will arrive in the interior Northeast Wednesday, with highs only in the 70s at most from far northern New England to western Pennsylvania.
By Thursday, the cold front will have cleared much of the Northeast, with mainly 60s or even a few 50s for highs, though some showers and storms could linger in parts of the mid-Atlantic, Virginia and the Carolinas.
(MAPS: 10-Day US Forecast Highs/Lows)
Jonathan Erdman is a senior meteorologist at weather.com and has been covering national and international weather since 1996. Extreme and bizarre weather are his favorite topics. Reach out to him on Bluesky, X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook.
