Extreme heat will make it feel more like August than May for Texas, parts of southeastern US

HOUSTON (AP) — Sweltering heat more commonly seen in the throes of summer than in the spring was making an unwelcome visit this week to a large portion of the U.S. – from the Dakotas to Texas and other parts of the South – and putting millions of Americans on alert for potentially dangerous temperatures.

In Austin, forecasters warned that the early heat wave could break a century-old record for May of 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius).

“Definitely more like August this week than May,” said Cameron Self, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s office in the Houston and Galveston area.

It is not unusual to have temperatures above 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius) in May in Houston and other parts of Texas.

“But getting long stretches of temperatures well in the 90s that usually holds off till June,” Self said.

This week’s extreme heat was predicted to have some Texas cities experiencing the longest string of triple-digit days they have ever had before in June, said John Nielsen-Gammon, the Texas state climatologist.

Several cities around North Dakota set record high temperatures in recent days, with some shattering highs that stood for well over 100 years.

While cooler air is expected to provide some relief for the northern part of the country, Texas and states in the southeastern part of the U.S. were likely to suffer through this heat for at least the next week or so.

A very strong ridge of high pressure over the south-central United States that is centered over the Gulf of Mexico is responsible for the extreme heat. For the next six to 10 days, much of south central and the southeastern United States will be warmer than normal, with the highest temperatures occurring over parts of Texas and Florida, Self said.

The same weather system heating up Texas and other southern states was also the same one that helped spike temperatures in the Dakotas, Minnesota and parts of the Midwest, Nielsen-Gammon said.

In the last few days, the Dakotas, Minnesota and southern parts of Canada have seen unusually warm temperatures for this time of year, as much as 30 degrees above normal, said Mindy Beerends, meteorologist-in-charge for the National Weather Service in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

“This is very early for this type of heat,” she said.

Fargo on Sunday hit 95 degrees Fahrenheit (35 degrees Celsius), surpassing the previous high of 93 degrees Fahrenheit (33.89 degrees Celsius) set in 1887. Bismarck on Monday reached 97 degrees Fahrenheit (36.11 degrees Celsius), breaking the record of 92 degrees Fahrenheit (33.33 degrees Celsius) set in 1880.

The unseasonably high temperatures, along with very low humidity and spreading drought conditions have created unusually dangerous fire conditions in northern Minnesota, Gov. Tim Walz and other state officials said at a briefing Tuesday.

Weather conditions were expected to improve Thursday when rain and cooler temperatures should give firefighters a break, the officials said.

“But this is going to be an ongoing battle, probably throughout most of the summer,” Walz said.

Minnesota usually experiences a little over 1,100 wildfires covering about 12,000 acres per year but the state is already up to 970, covering more than 37,000 acres, including over 80 since Sunday, the officials said.

Fires have been explosive in nature due to the dry conditions, said Brian Galvin, fire chief of the Goodrich Rural Fire Department in central North Dakota. About 50 to 60 firefighters, farmers and other people responded on Saturday to a fast-moving fire near Lincoln Valley that burned 200 acres.

Areas like Houston that are closer to the Gulf of Mexico could have their temperatures “modified somewhat” because water temperatures are still cool enough, but parts of Texas farther west of the Gulf are going to see temperatures well over 100 degrees, Self said.

In San Antonio, the National Weather Service said high temperatures were expected to rise above 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius) through the weekend.

The Texas Department of Public Safety asked residents to follow various safety tips, including staying hydrated and limiting outdoor activities, to stay safe.

Trump signed an executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America. The order only carries authority within the U.S. Other countries and international institutions continue to use the name the Gulf of Mexico.

Sylvia Dee, an assistant professor of earth, environmental and planetary sciences at Rice University in Houston, said with temperature records being broken “somewhere every month and every year,” heat waves like the one impacting Texas and other parts of the country should not be seen as out of the ordinary.

Climate change is likely expanding the summer season, meaning that hotter temperatures will start earlier and end later, Dee said.

“I think that this is our new normal, for sure. I think we should be prepared as Texans, but also across the country, for these changes - higher temperatures, more persistent heat events,” Dee said.

Associated Press writers Steve Karnowski in St. Paul, Minnesota, and Jack Dura in Bismarck, North Dakota, contributed to this report.

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FILE - People cool off in misters during a heat wave along the Las Vegas Strip, Sunday, July 7, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher, file)

A waitress tends to outdoor patrons as temperatures top the triple-digit mark, Tuesday, May 13, 2025, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Visitors walk along the River Walk as temperatures top the triple-digit mark, Tuesday, May 13, 2025, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

A construction worker guides a crane as temperatures top the triple-digit mark, Tuesday, May 13, 2025, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump said Iran wants to negotiate with Washington after his threat to strike the Islamic Republic over its bloody crackdown on protesters, a move coming as activists said Monday the death toll in the nationwide demonstrations rose to at least 544.

Iran had no immediate reaction to the news, which came after the foreign minister of Oman — long an interlocutor between Washington and Tehran — traveled to Iran this weekend. It also remains unclear just what Iran could promise, particularly as Trump has set strict demands over its nuclear program and its ballistic missile arsenal, which Tehran insists is crucial for its national defense.

Meanwhile Monday, Iran called for pro-government demonstrators to head to the streets in support of the theocracy, a show of force after days of protests directly challenging the rule of 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iranian state television aired chants from the crowd, who shouted “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!”

Trump and his national security team have been weighing a range of potential responses against Iran including cyberattacks and direct strikes by the U.S. or Israel, according to two people familiar with internal White House discussions who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

“The military is looking at it, and we’re looking at some very strong options,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday night. Asked about Iran’s threats of retaliation, he said: “If they do that, we will hit them at levels that they’ve never been hit before.”

Trump said that his administration was in talks to set up a meeting with Tehran, but cautioned that he may have to act first as reports of the death toll in Iran mount and the government continues to arrest protesters.

“I think they’re tired of being beat up by the United States,” Trump said. “Iran wants to negotiate.”

He added: “The meeting is being set up, but we may have to act because of what’s happening before the meeting. But a meeting is being set up. Iran called, they want to negotiate.”

Iran through country's parliamentary speaker warned Sunday that the U.S. military and Israel would be “legitimate targets” if America uses force to protect demonstrators.

More than 10,600 people also have been detained over the two weeks of protests, said the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which has been accurate in previous unrest in recent years and gave the death toll. It relies on supporters in Iran crosschecking information. It said 496 of the dead were protesters and 48 were with security forces.

With the internet down in Iran and phone lines cut off, gauging the demonstrations from abroad has grown more difficult. The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the toll. Iran’s government has not offered overall casualty figures.

Those abroad fear the information blackout is emboldening hard-liners within Iran’s security services to launch a bloody crackdown. Protesters flooded the streets in the country’s capital and its second-largest city on Saturday night into Sunday morning. Online videos purported to show more demonstrations Sunday night into Monday, with a Tehran official acknowledging them in state media.

In Tehran, a witness told the AP that the streets of the capital empty at the sunset call to prayers each night. By the Isha, or nighttime prayer, the streets are deserted.

Part of that stems from the fear of getting caught in the crackdown. Police sent the public a text message that warned: “Given the presence of terrorist groups and armed individuals in some gatherings last night and their plans to cause death, and the firm decision to not tolerate any appeasement and to deal decisively with the rioters, families are strongly advised to take care of their youth and teenagers.”

Another text, which claimed to come from the intelligence arm of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, also directly warned people not to take part in demonstrations.

“Dear parents, in view of the enemy’s plan to increase the level of naked violence and the decision to kill people, ... refrain from being on the streets and gathering in places involved in violence, and inform your children about the consequences of cooperating with terrorist mercenaries, which is an example of treason against the country,” the text warned.

The witness spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity due to the ongoing crackdown.

The demonstrations began Dec. 28 over the collapse of the Iranian rial currency, which trades at over 1.4 million to $1, as the country’s economy is squeezed by international sanctions in part levied over its nuclear program. The protests intensified and grew into calls directly challenging Iran’s theocracy.

Nikhinson reported from aboard Air Force One.

In this frame grab from video obtained by the AP outside Iran, a masked demonstrator holds a picture of Iran's Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi during a protest in Tehran, Iran, Friday, January. 9, 2026. (UGC via AP)

In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran shows protesters taking to the streets despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026.(UGC via AP)

In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran showed protesters once again taking to the streets of Tehran despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Saturday Jan. 10, 2026. (UGC via AP)