ATLANTA (AP) — A long-lasting weather pattern is poised to blast hot air like a furnace across the eastern United States, with the unusual heat wave threatening to shatter record high temperatures on Wednesday in big cities including New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.
The heat is unusual for April, not only because it’s scorching much of the nation so early in the year but also for its duration. The near-record temperatures are expected to last into this weekend, forecasters say.
The potentially dangerous heat comes after severe storms tore through Kansas, Minnesota and Wisconsin on Monday and Tuesday. There's a possibility of more storms on Wednesday.
While it's not unprecedented to see high temperatures climb toward 90 degrees (32 Celsius) on an April day, the length of such an April heat wave is rarely seen, experts say.
“That’s borderline unprecedented as far as the duration of it this time of year,” said John Feerick, senior meteorologist at the forecasting firm AccuWeather.com.
Feerick said that starting Wednesday “we're going to have records challenged from basically Georgia all the way up through the New York City area and back towards the Ohio Valley.”
The National Weather Service is projecting a high temperature around 86 degrees (30 Celsius) for Central Park in New York City on Wednesday. The record high for the date is 87, which has stood since 1941.
Even hotter weather is expected in Philadelphia, where Wednesday's high is expected to be 92 degrees (33 C). Other likely hot spots include Washington, D.C., which could see a high of 94 (34 C); and Atlanta, where the high is projected to be 88 (31 C).
“It's really some very impressive heat for the middle of April, for sure,” Feerick said.
“The good thing about this is that the humidity is not summertime levels,” he added. That means it won't feel as hot as a sizzling July day.
However, the early-season heat can be more stressful on people's bodies since they haven't had a chance to acclimate.
“It's kind of one of those things where it’s a little more stressful to the body because you're not used to it the first time around,” Feerick said.
Heat is the No. 1 weather-related killer in the U.S., the weather service warns. Infants and young children; older adults, people with chronic medical conditions and pregnant women are especially vulnerable to heat-related injuries and death.
A strong ridge of high pressure fueling moisture into the southern plains was responsible for bringing the unusual heat to the eastern U.S., the weather service said.
Though Wednesday is a day when many records could fall, the heat wave will continue through Friday in many areas, forecasters said.
“Widespread lower to even middle 90s are expected Friday across the lower elevations of the Carolinas, which could set additional daily records and perhaps come close to some monthly records,” the agency's Weather Prediction Center wrote in a memo.
The heat wave should finally be breaking down by Sunday as a strong cold front moves toward the Eastern Seaboard, and then it should be “pleasantly cooler” by Monday with the front heading out to sea, the weather service said.
A man looks though debris Tuesday, April 14, 2026, at a pipe manufacturing facility that was damaged by a tornado Monday in Ottawa, Kan. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
Workers salvage items Tuesday, April 14, 2026, at a pipe manufacturing facility that was damaged by a tornado Monday in Ottawa, Kan. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
FILE - A jogger runs past as a man sunbathes on a hot day at Crissy Field in San Francisco, March 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department on Tuesday asked a federal appeals court to throw out the seditious conspiracy convictions of Proud Boys and Oath Keepers leaders who were sentenced to prison terms for leading members of the far-right extremist groups in attacking the U.S. Capitol to keep President Donald Trump in office over five years ago.
Trump commuted the prison sentences of several Proud Boys and Oath Keepers leaders last January in a sweeping act of clemency for all 1,500-plus defendants charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack.
The request by the Justice Department would go a step further and erase all the convictions for extremist group leaders, including Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, who didn't receive pardons last January.
The move to abandon the convictions represented a stunning reversal from the Biden administration, which hailed the guilty verdicts as a crucial victory in its bid to hold accountable those responsible for what prosecutors described as an attack on the heart of American democracy. It’s part of the Trump administration’s continued efforts to rewrite the history of the Jan. 6 attack and downplay the violence carried out by the mob of Trump supporters that left more than 100 police officers injured.
In court filings, prosecutors asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to vacate the convictions so that the government can permanently dismiss the indictments.
“The government’s motion to vacate in this case is consistent with its practice of moving the Supreme Court to vacate convictions in cases where the government has decided in its prosecutorial discretion that dismissal of a criminal case is in the interests of justice — motions that the Supreme Court routinely grants,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing signed by U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro.
Juries in Washington, D.C., convicted the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers leaders of orchestrating violent plots to stop the peaceful transfer of power after Trump's 2020 election loss to Democratic President Joe Biden.
The department's dismissal request also includes the convictions of Oath Keepers members Kelly Meggs, Kenneth Harrelson and Jessica Watkins and Proud Boys members Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola.
Other extremist group members, including former Proud Boys national chairman Enrique Tarrio, received pardons from Trump on the first day of his second term in the White House.
Rhodes was sentenced to 18 years in prison after he and several lieutenants were convicted in one of the most consequential cases arising from the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters.
Prosecutors said Rhodes and his followers stockpiled guns for possible use by “quick reaction force” teams at a Virginia hotel, but they never deployed the weapons.
Nordean's attorney, Nicholas Smith, said they are grateful to the Justice Department for its “wise decision" in seeking dismissal of the convictions.
“We don't want a precedent that says that any physical confrontation between protesters and law enforcement means a crime akin to treason, such as seditious conspiracy,” Smith said.
Former Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone, who was dragged into the mob and suffered a heart attack after a rioter shocked him with a stun gun, was disappointed but not surprised by the latest milestone in the dismantling of Capitol riot prosecutions.
“I would remind Americans that these were traitors to this country," Fanone said. “They planned, incited and carried out an insurrection."
FILE - The Department of Justice seal is seen in Washington, Nov. 28, 2018. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
FILE - With the White House in the background, President Donald Trump speaks at a rally on Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, file)
