DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Summer camp and other outdoor activities were canceled or delayed Monday as a heat wave held its grip on the Midwest and spread eastward. Communities opened cooling centers and urged people to take it easy and stay hydrated.
“Overall, we’re looking at just a really hot and humid pattern. It’s going to be with us through most of the week," Andrew Ansorge, a meteorologist in Des Moines, Iowa, said of the first prolonged period of heat this summer.
Click to Gallery
Children play at a water sprayground in Des Moines, Iowa, Monday, June 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Hannah Fingerhut)
Children play at a water sprayground in Des Moines, Iowa, Monday, June 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Hannah Fingerhut)
Children play at a water sprayground in Des Moines, Iowa, Monday, June 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Hannah Fingerhut)
FILE - A Japan soccer fan wipes his brow while standing in the heat in downtown Dallas, June 24, 2026. (AP Photo/LM Otero, File)
Much of Iowa and big chunks of the Midwest were under an extreme heat warning through at least Tuesday. Temperatures were forecast to reach the 90s, with heat index values, or “feels-like” temperatures, expected to top 100 degrees (37.8 degrees Celsius) in the region, Ansorge said.
Visiting Des Moines with family, Rachel Washburn searched for things to do with kids during a heat wave. They landed at a water sprayground before lunch, where her children played tag in the cool water to escape a heat index forecast to reach 109 degrees Fahrenheit (43 degrees Celsius).
“My kids were quite shocked at the heat and humidity,” said Washburn of her seven children ages 18 months to 17 who are used to more temperate weather in Bemidji, Minnesota. “We were hoping for some good weather, but we'll make do.”
Some of the worst conditions are expected by Thursday and Friday as the heat moves through the Ohio Valley, the Mid-Atlantic and into the Northeast, with the potential for some record-high temperatures, said Scott Kleebauer, a meteorologist with the Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland.
On Monday morning, Tom and Cindy Youngblood walked around an outdoor sculpture park in Des Moines, enjoying brief moments of shade and a helpful breeze. The couple, both 67 and from Rogers, Arkansas, returned from a camping trip in Wisconsin and chose a hotel over their camper van Sunday.
“We did not want to camp last night because we knew it would be too hot,” Cindy Youngblood said.
Kleebauer said one of the center’s biggest recommendations is to stay hydrated and have access shady areas and air conditioning.
“It just so happens to be coinciding with a time frame where a lot of people are away and a lot of people are going away for vacation” during the Fourth of July holiday week, he said.
Extreme heat has also taken its toll in Europe, where temperature records were set and many heat-related deaths were reported in France.
People can be caught off guard by the first heat wave of the year, said Dr. Roy Elrod, chief of staff at DMC Detroit Receiving Hospital.
“You’re happy winter’s gone, you’re ready to enjoy the summer, you’ve just been aching for it,” Elrod said. “And so, I think we slip into kind of a position where we think it’s got to be OK.”
But heat-related injuries can happen in a matter of minutes, especially to those who don’t prepare for the weather by hydrating, wearing light clothing, avoiding the hottest times of the day and minimizing exposure to the sun, he said.
“We’re just not always prepared for it and it just takes an incident that rattles you and shakes you up that you understand that it can get serious very quick,” he said.
In the Midwest, some camp programs on Monday rearranged their schedules. Other outdoor activities, like a farmers market in Michigan and a drive-in theater in Minnesota, were canceled on Monday because of the heat.
In Flint, Michigan, the city activated four cooling centers through Wednesday, with the potential to extend operations if the heat persists.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison said it was closing 23 buildings to the public starting Tuesday, allowing only limited access to 11 others. It was relocating some summer classes after a broken water line at its cooling plant earlier this month severely reduced the ability to provide air conditioning across campus.
Temperatures approaching 90 degrees and high humidity didn’t stop Toni Kreutzer, 28, from taking a walk along the shores of Lake Mendota in Madison, Wisconsin, with her 13-year-old dog Chester.
“I like it hot,” Kreutzer said. "I just don’t like the humidity."
McCormack reported from Concord, New Hampshire. Associated Press reporters Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin, and Haya Panjwani in Washington, D.C., contributed.
Children play at a water sprayground in Des Moines, Iowa, Monday, June 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Hannah Fingerhut)
Children play at a water sprayground in Des Moines, Iowa, Monday, June 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Hannah Fingerhut)
Children play at a water sprayground in Des Moines, Iowa, Monday, June 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Hannah Fingerhut)
FILE - A Japan soccer fan wipes his brow while standing in the heat in downtown Dallas, June 24, 2026. (AP Photo/LM Otero, File)
LEXINGTON, S.C. (AP) — Alex Murdaugh was back in court Monday on charges he killed his wife and son, appearing silently at a pretrial hearing that was mostly short on substance but long on spectacle as the true crime sensation continues to captivate.
Murdaugh’s murder convictions and sentence of life in prison were overturned last month by the South Carolina Supreme Court. On Monday, a new judge laid out a timeline for hearings set the retrial to begin April 5. She also nailed down deadlines for making sure the defense and prosecution have exchanged evidence, a process called discovery.
Dozens of media outlets, from international agencies and local TV stations to podcasters, were inside the 200-person Lexington County courthouse to again chronicle every forehead rub and quizzical look from the once-rich and imposing Southern lawyer.
“I see we have a full house,” Judge Debra McCaslin said as the hearing began.
For many, it was a rare glimpse of how life in state prison has changed the 58-year-old Murdaugh. After pleading guilty to stealing about $12 million from clients and his family’s law firm, he is serving a 40-year federal sentence at the same time as a 27-year state sentence.
Unlike just about everyone else in the courtroom, the judge said she was new to the story, which combines a grisly double murder with the fall of a powerful legal dynasty.
“I don’t know anything about the first trial, so when you tell me something please be complete,” McCaslin told the lawyers.
Prosecutors say Murdaugh shot his wife Maggie and younger son Paul, 22, because he believed sympathy over their deaths would buy him time to fix his financial crimes. At that point in 2021, he was close to being exposed by both his law firm and the family of a teen who filed a wrongful death lawsuit after Paul crashed a boat while drinking.
A jury convicted Murdaugh of two counts of murder in 2023. While admitting he is a thief, insurance cheat, bad lawyer and longtime opioid addict, he has adamantly denied the killings.
Murdaugh wore an orange prison jumpsuit Monday, listening with his mouth set in a tight line.
At one point, as defense attorney Dick Harpootlian asked the judge to let Murdaugh wear civilian clothing in court, he told his client to stand.
“Chains around the hands, chain around the waist, chains on his feet,” Harpootlian noted, saying a jury would see Murdaugh shackled like a dangerous criminal when he’s only been convicted of financial crimes.
Prosecutor Creighton Waters said it's important for incarcerated defendants to wear restraints and jumpsuits. “Every time someone is transferred out of court, it is a security risk.”
Defense lawyers want Murdaugh, who was disbarred during his legal troubles, to have access in prison to a laptop without internet, so his team won't have to print and deliver evidence to him. Harpootlian said Monday there are more than 20,000 pages of documents.
“Well surely, Mr. Harpootlian, he reviewed those before his first trial, did he not?” the judge asked.
“Five years ago,” the lawyer replied.
Another pretrial motion asks prosecutors to turn over DNA found under Murdaugh’s wife’s fingernails for testing at a private lab. Investigators said it was from an unknown and unrelated man. The defense said they'd cover the cost of testing.
“I’m gonna let you pay for it,” the judge quipped, drawing a chuckle from the courtroom.
Murdaugh was grimacing and biting his lower lip during the exchange.
The defense also wants to hold the next trial outside Colleton County, where the killings happened and the first trial took place. That matter wasn't decided Monday.
Investigators and armchair detectives alike have spent hours poring over alibis, timelines and digital breadcrumbs, including a cellphone video that prosecutors say cracked the case. They allege Murdaugh’s voice can be heard on the video, which was taken by his son shortly before the shootings at dog kennels on the family’s sprawling property. Murdaugh had initially claimed he was asleep at the time.
During the first trial, a few jurors said the Colleton County clerk of court, who is assigned to oversee the evidence and the jury during the trial, told them to watch Murdaugh’s body language when he testified in his own defense and to not be fooled, confused or thrown off by what he might say.
The state Supreme Court ruled this was a suggestion Murdaugh was guilty, and overturned his convictions.
The justices were also concerned there had been too much testimony around how Murdaugh stole from clients, many of them in dire straits.
Alex Murdaugh arrives for a judicial hearing on Monday, June 29, 2026, at the Marc H. Westbrook Judicial Center in Lexington, S.C. (Tracy Glantz/The State via AP, Pool)
State Judge Debra McCaslin oversees a judicial hearing on Monday, June 29, 2026, at the Marc H. Westbrook Judicial Center in Lexington, S.C. (Tracy Glantz/The State via AP, Pool)
Alex Murdaugh arrives for a judicial hearing on Monday, June 29, 2026, at the Marc H. Westbrook Judicial Center in Lexington, S.C. (Tracy Glantz/The State via AP, Pool)
Alex Murdaugh attends a judicial hearing on Monday, June 29, 2026, at the Marc H. Westbrook Judicial Center in Lexington, S.C. (Tracy Glantz/The State via AP, Pool)
Reverend Raymond Johnson protests outside the Lexington County Courthouse before the arrival of Alex Murdaugh in Lexington, S.C., Monday, June 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Sam Wolfe)
Dick Harpootlian, a defense attorney for Alex Murdaugh, arrives at the Lexington County Courthouse in Lexington, S.C., Monday, June 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Sam Wolfe)
Visitors wait in line outside the Lexington County Courthouse before a pre-trial hearing for Alex Murdaugh in Lexington, S.C., Monday, June 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Sam Wolfe)
A vehicle believed to be transporting Alex Murdaugh arrives at the Lexington County Courthouse in Lexington, S.C., Monday, June 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Sam Wolfe)
FILE - Alex Murdaugh, convicted of killing his wife, Maggie, and younger son, Paul, in June 2021, listens during a hearing on the motion for a retrial, Jan. 16, 2024, at the Richland County Judicial Center, in Columbia, S.C. (Gavin McIntyre/The Post and Courier via AP, Pool, File)
