(New York) A “extremely dangerous” heat wave is falling on the American east coast on Monday, with a mercury expected nearly 40 degrees in the New York metropolitan region, which pushes residents to take refuge in “refresh islets”.
The first important episode of high heat this year in the United States began this weekend to reach a peak on Monday in the big agglomerations of Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York.
“This extreme heat will not only be uncomfortable and oppressive for New Yorkers. It will be brutal and dangerous if you do not take the necessary measures, “warned the mayor of New York, Eric Adams, adding that” each year more than 500 people die of heat “in the metropolis of more than 8 million inhabitants.
Local authorities have asked the elderly or vulnerable population, due to respiratory problems or for lack of access to air conditioning, hydrate or head for refreshment islets, such as libraries while stifling and sticky heat enveloped the city on Monday.
The intensity and duration of this heat wave makes it “extremely dangerous for anyone without refreshment or hydration”, hammer American meteorological services (NWS), recalling that extreme heat constitutes the leading cause of mortality linked to the weather.
Photo Timothy A. Clary, Agency France-Presse
A tourist poses for photos in front of a steam grid on Wall Street in New York on June 23, 2025.
No night respite
“An intense barometric crest, parked in the eastern half of the country, will continue to generate an extremely dangerous heat wave this week. The effects of the risk of extreme heat will extend from the Midwest in the center of the Atlantic today. This level of heat risk is known to be rare (…) with little or no respite during the night, ”warns the NWS.
In New York, this heat wave occurs while the voters of the Democratic Party are called on Tuesday to choose their candidate for the municipal election in a primary which promises to be disputed, according to the polls, between the centrist tenor Andrew Cuomo and the rising star of the left Zohran Mamdami.
“Vote the election day, even if it is 100 degrees (Fahrenheit, unit of measure used in the United States)”, more than 37 degrees Celsius, launched before the press during the weekend Mr. Cuomo, former governor of New York State.
In the capital, Washington, the town hall reminded residents that many air -conditioned places are open to them to cool off.
Photo Alex Wroblewski, agency France-Presse
A man sells drinks and ice cream during a strong heat wave in Washington on June 22, 2025.
According to scientists, repeated heat waves are an unequivocal marker of the global warming and these heat waves are called to multiply, lie down and intensify.
The year 2024 was the hottest year ever recorded in the United States (excluding Alaska and Hawaii) as in the whole world. 2024 was also the first year to exceed the limit of 1.5 ° C of warming fixed by the Paris climate agreement, according to the world meteorological organization, a UN agency.
