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)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — An ailing astronaut returned to Earth with three others on Thursday, ending their space station mission more than a month early in NASA’s first medical evacuation.

SpaceX guided the capsule to a middle-of-the-night splashdown in the Pacific near San Diego, less than 11 hours after the astronauts exited the International Space Station.

“It’s so good to be home,” said NASA astronaut Zena Cardman, the capsule commander.

It was an unexpected finish to a mission that began in August and left the orbiting lab with only one American and two Russians on board. NASA and SpaceX said they would try to move up the launch of a fresh crew of four; liftoff is currently targeted for mid-February.

Cardman and NASA’s Mike Fincke were joined on the return by Japan’s Kimiya Yui and Russia’s Oleg Platonov. Officials have refused to identify the astronaut who had the health problem or explain what happened, citing medical privacy.

While the astronaut was stable in orbit, NASA wanted them back on Earth as soon as possible to receive proper care and diagnostic testing. The entry and splashdown required no special changes or accommodations, officials said, and the recovery ship had its usual allotment of medical experts on board. It was not immediately known when the astronauts would fly from California to their home base in Houston. Platonov’s return to Moscow was also unclear.

NASA stressed repeatedly over the past week that this was not an emergency. The astronaut fell sick or was injured on Jan. 7, prompting NASA to call off the next day’s spacewalk by Cardman and Fincke, and ultimately resulting in the early return. It was the first time NASA cut short a spaceflight for medical reasons. The Russians had done so decades ago.

The space station has gotten by with three astronauts before, sometimes even with just two. NASA said it will be unable to perform a spacewalk, even for an emergency, until the arrival of the next crew, which has two Americans, one French and one Russian astronaut.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov is helped out of the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft onboard the SpaceX recovery ship SHANNON after they re-entered the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)

JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Kimiya Yui is helped out of the SpaceX Crew-11 capsule after they re-entered the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)

NASA astronaut Mike Fincke is helped out of the SpaceX Crew-11 capsule after they re-entered the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)

NASA astronaut Zena Cardman is helped out of the SpaceX Crew-11 capsule after they re-entered the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)

This screengrab from video provided by NASA shows the NASA's SpaceX Crew-11 capsule being taken into the recovery vessel after crew members re entered the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)

This screengrab from video provided by NASA shows NASA astronaut Mike Fincke getting helped out of the SpaceX Crew-11 capsule after they re-entered the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)

This screengrab from video provided by NASA shows NASA Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui being helped out of the SpaceX Crew-11 capsule after they re-entered the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)

This screengrab from video provided by NASA shows Russian astronaut Oleg Platonov being helped out of the SpaceX Crew-11 capsule after they re-entered the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)

Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov, left, NASA astronauts Mike Fincke, Zena Cardman, and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Kimiya Yui are seen inside the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft onboard the SpaceX recovery ship SHANNON shortly after having landed in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Long Beach, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)

This screengrab from video provided by NASA shows NASA astronaut Zena Cardman being helped out of the SpaceX Crew-11 capsule after they re-entered the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)

This screengrab from video provided by NASA TV shows the SpaceX Dragon departing from the International Space Station shortly after undocking with four NASA Crew-11 members inside on Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (NASA via AP)

This photo provided by NASA shows clockwise from bottom left are, NASA astronaut Mike Fincke, Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov, NASA astronaut Zena Cardman, and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Kimiya Yui gathering for a crew portrait wearing their Dragon pressure suits during a suit verification check inside the International Space Station’s Kibo laboratory module, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (NASA via AP)

This screengrab from video provided by NASA shows recovery vessels approaching the NASA's SpaceX Crew-11 capsule to evacuate one of the crew members after they re-entered the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)

This screengrab from video provided by NASA shows the NASA's SpaceX Crew-11 members re entering the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)

This screengrab from video provided by NASA shows the NASA's SpaceX Crew-11 members re entering the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)