Temperature in New York City reaches 100 degrees as eastern US swelters under extreme heat wave

NEW YORK (AP) — Extensive triple digit heat, broken temperature records and oppressive humidity piled up into a steaming mess as the heat dome crushing the Eastern half of the nation sizzled to what should be its worst Tuesday.

New York City’s John F. Kennedy Airport hit 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 Celsius) a little after noon, the first time since 2013. Then Baltimore, Philadelphia and Boston joined the 100 club. More than 150 million people woke up to heat warnings and forecasters at the National Weather Service expected dozens of places to tie or set new daily high temperature records Tuesday. The dangerous heat sent people to the hospital, delayed Amtrak trains and caused utilities to urge customers to conserve power.

“Every East Coast state today from Maine to Florida has a chance of 100 degree actual temperature,” said private meteorologist Ryan Maue, a former National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief scientist.

Fryeburg, Maine, also hit 100, for the first time since 2011.

“Getting Maine to 100 degrees is infrequent,” Maue said.

Tuesday’s heat came on top of 39 new or tied heat records Monday. But just as dangerous as triple digit heat is the lack of cooling at night, driven by the humidity.

“You get the combination of the extreme heat and humidity but no relief,” said Jacob Asherman, a meteorologist at NOAA’s Weather Prediction Center. “It’s kind of been just everything stacked on top of itself.... It just speaks to how strong this heat wave is. This is a pretty, pretty extreme event.”

Asherman and Maue said Tuesday is the peak of the high pressure system that sits on top of the Mid-Atlantic and keeps the heat and humidity turned up several notches.

“Nobody is immune to the heat,” said Kimberly McMahon, the weather service public services program manager who specializes in heat and health.

Dozens attending outdoor high school graduation ceremonies in a northern New Jersey city on Monday were treated for heat exhaustion and related problems, including 16 taken to hospitals. The Paterson school district held ceremonies in the morning and the afternoon as temperatures soared to nearly 100 degrees. Officials halted the second ceremony about an hour after it had started due to the heat.

And in New Hampshire, two 16-year-old hikers were rescued from a mountain in Jaffrey late Monday afternoon, overcome by the heat, the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department said. They were described as being in and out of consciousness and taken to a hospital.

The heat hit New York City as residents headed to the polls for the city’s primary election. In Queens, Rekha Malhotra was handing out flyers in support of Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani while wearing a pink electric fan around their neck.

“It’s 90 bazillian degrees and here I am,” said Malhotra. “I could have been phone banking.”

“I have all the things — hat, ice and this,” Malhotra added, clutching a commercial-grade spray bottle.

Utilities across the Midwest and East braced for the surge of extra demand in the heat, at times asking people to cut back on air conditioning when it felt like it was needed the most. In Memphis, Tennessee, residents were asked to turn off unnecessary lights and electronics, wait until nighttime to use dishwashers, washing machines dryers, and raise thermostats a few degrees, if health allows.

The heat and humidity during the day was compounded by humid nights where the temperatures don’t drop much and the human body and the electric bill don’t get a break to recover, said Bernadette Woods Placky, chief meteorologist at Climate Central.

“The longer the heat lasts, the more it wears on the body, the more it wears on the health,” Woods Placky said.

A good rule of thumb is the temperature has to get at least as low as 75 degrees, if not lower, for people to recover, McMahon said. That’s a lesson from the Pacific Northwest heat wave of 2021, when many of the deaths were older people who lived at home and died at night because it wasn’t getting cool enough, she said.

“Unlike other weather hazards, heat does have that compounding effect on the human body. Your body tolerates less and less heat as the days go on,” McMahon said.

Because warmer air from human-caused climate change holds more moisture, making it more humid, summer nights are actually heating up faster than summer days, Woods Placky said. That’s why the Dust Bowl of the 1930s hit high temperatures similar to now, but it wasn’t as warm overall because the nights cooled, she said.

The United States daytime summer high temperature has increased 2.2 degrees Fahrenheit since 1975, but the nighttime lowest temperature is now on average 2.6 degrees higher, according to NOAA data. In Baltimore, summer nights have warmed 4.5 degrees Fahrenheit since 1975, while summer days only 1.5 degrees, the data showed.

Marc Savenor, who owns Acme Ice and Dry Ice Company in Cambridge, Massachusetts, struggled to keep up with phones ringing as the heat wave overwhelmed ice machines and refrigerators, forcing customers to seek emergency supplies.

“During the heat waves, my phone will ring at 3 in the morning till 11 at night,” Savenor said as workers shoveled dry ice into pellets. “There’s no help for the weary here, because you’ve got to get it when it’s coming in and everybody wants some.”

Air conditioners and fans have been flying off the shelves at Khan Electronics in Queens, owner Mudassar Khan said.

“It started getting hot at night. People buy air conditioners when they feel uncomfortable at night,” Khan said.

“Relief is coming,” Maue said, predicting that on Friday, New York City probably won't even get into the 70s. “It'll feel incredible.”

Associated Press writers Cedar Attanasio in New York; Bruce Shipkowski in Trenton, New Jersey; Adrian Sainz in Memphis, Tennessee; Rodrigue Ngowi in Boston; and Patrick Whittle in Portland, Maine, contributed.

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Visitors use brochures to shield themselves from the sun as they walk near the U.S. Capitol on an unseasonably hot day, Tuesday, June 24, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Mudassar Khan, right, talks with a customer while sitting outside his electronics store with air conditioners and fans for sale on display, Tuesday, June 24, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Cedar Attanasio)

With temperatures hovering near 100 degrees, children cool off in the Frog Pond, on Boston Common, Tuesday, June 24, 2025, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Children cool off during the Benton Harbor Department of Public Safety's Spray & Play held at the Pete Mitchell City Center Park in downtown Benton Harbor, Mich., on Tuesday, June 24, 2025. (Don Campbell/The Herald-Palladium via AP)

Felix Gutierrez, 43, and Caesar Ayala Gutierrez, 21, pick blueberries in the sweltering heat at Stepping Stone Farms on Monday, June 23, 2025, in Bourbon County, Ky. (AP Photo/Michael Swensen)

People use umbrellas to shield themselves from the sun as they walk along the National Mall, Tuesday, June 24, 2025, in Washington, past the Washington Monument. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Woman takes a bite of an ice cream cone during a heatwave on Tuesday, June 24, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Olga Fedorova)

Fans of Japanese band "Baby Metal" cool off with water and wet wipes as they line up to see the show during a heatwave on Tuesday, June 24, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Olga Fedorova)

A man squints at the sun during a heatwave on Tuesday, June 24, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Olga Fedorova)

A fruit vendor pushes her cart on the Brooklyn Bridge during a heatwave on Tuesday, June 24, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Olga Fedorova)

A woman wipes her brow during a heatwave on Tuesday, June 24, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Olga Fedorova)

With temperatures hovering near 100 degrees, a woman protects herself from the sun while walking through Boston Common, Tuesday, June 24, 2025, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Working before the temperature hits 100 degrees today, Jeffrey Adcock cleans the reflecting pool in Lower Senate Park at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, June 24, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

People exercise on the Brooklyn waterfront during a heatwave on Tuesday, June 24, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Olga Fedorova)

A park employee uses a sand blower to clear sand from a playground before opening it to children during a heatwave on Tuesday, June 24, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Olga Fedorova)

A fruit vendor pushes her cart on the Brooklyn Bridge during a heatwave on Tuesday, June 24, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Olga Fedorova)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's photo portrait display at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery has had references to his two impeachments removed, the latest apparent change at the collection of museums he has accused of bias as he asserts his influence over how official presentations document U.S. history.

The wall text, which summarized Trump's first presidency and noted his 2024 comeback victory, was part of the museum's “American Presidents” exhibition. The description had been placed alongside a photograph of Trump taken during his first term. Now, a different photo appears without any accompanying text block, though the text was available online. Trump was the only president whose display in the gallery, as seen Sunday, did not include any extended text.

The White House did not say whether it sought any changes. Nor did a Smithsonian statement in response to Associated Press questions. But Trump ordered in August that Smithsonian officials review all exhibits before the nation celebrates the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence on July 4. The Republican administration said the effort would “ensure alignment with the president’s directive to celebrate American exceptionalism, remove divisive or partisan narratives, and restore confidence in our shared cultural institutions.”

Trump's original “portrait label," as the Smithsonian calls it, notes Trump's Supreme Court nominations and his administration's development of COVID-19 vaccines. That section concludes: “Impeached twice, on charges of abuse of power and incitement of insurrection after supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, he was acquitted by the Senate in both trials.”

Then the text continues: “After losing to Joe Biden in 2020, Trump mounted a historic comeback in the 2024 election. He is the only president aside from Grover Cleveland (1837– 1908) to have won a nonconsecutive second term.”

Asked about the display, White House spokesman Davis Ingle celebrated the new photograph, which shows Trump, brow furrowed, leaning over his Oval Office desk. Ingle said it ensures Trump's “unmatched aura ... will be felt throughout the halls of the National Portrait Gallery.”

The portrait was taken by White House photographer Daniel Torok, who is credited in the display that includes medallions noting Trump is the 45th and 47th president. Similar numerical medallions appear alongside other presidents' painted portraits that also include the more extended biographical summaries such as what had been part of Trump's display.

Sitting presidents are represented by photographs until their official paintings are commissioned and completed.

Ingle did not answer questions about whether Trump or a White House aide, on his behalf, asked for anything related to the portrait label.

The gallery said in a statement that it had previously rotated two photographs of Trump from its collection before putting up Torok's work.

“The museum is beginning its planned update of the America’s Presidents gallery which will undergo a larger refresh this Spring,” the gallery statement said. “For some new exhibitions and displays, the museum has been exploring quotes or tombstone labels, which provide only general information, such as the artist’s name.”

For now, references to Presidents Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton being impeached in 1868 and 1998, respectively, remain as part of their portrait labels, as does President Richard Nixon's 1974 resignation as a result of the Watergate scandal.

And, the gallery statement noted, “The history of Presidential impeachments continues to be represented in our museums, including the National Museum of American History.”

Trump has made clear his intentions to shape how the federal government documents U.S. history and culture. He has offered an especially harsh assessment of how the Smithsonian and other museums have featured chattel slavery as a seminal variable in the nation's development but also taken steps to reshape how he and his contemporary rivals are depicted.

In the months before his order for a Smithsonian review, he fired the head archivist of the National Archives and said he was firing the National Portrait Gallery's director, Kim Sajet, as part of his overhaul. Sajet maintained the backing of the Smithsonian's governing board, but she ultimately resigned.

At the White House, Trump has designed a notably partisan and subjective “Presidential Walk of Fame” featuring gilded photographs of himself and his predecessors — with the exception of Biden, who is represented by an autopen — along with plaques describing their presidencies.

The White House said at the time that Trump himself was a primary author of the plaques. Notably, Trump's two plaques praise the 45th and 47th president as a historically successful figure while those under Biden's autopen stand-in describe the 46th executive as “by far, the worst President in American History” who “brought our Nation to the brink of destruction.”

Barrow reported from Atlanta.

People react to a photograph of President Donald Trump on display at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery's "American Presidents" exhibit on Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026 in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)

Visitors to the National Portrait Gallery walk past the portrait of President Donald Trump, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)

Visitors stop to look at a photograph of President Donald Trump and a short plaque next to it are on display at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery's "American Presidents" exhibit on Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026 in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)

A photograph of President Donald Trump and a short plaque next to it are on display at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery's "American Presidents" exhibit on Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026 in Washington. (AP Photo/Anna Johnson)

President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with oil executives in the East Room of the White House, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)