Multiday warnings of extreme heat landed in New York, Boston and Philadelphia on Wednesday as sultry weather pushed east just ahead of Fourth of July celebrations in a region that revels in its role as a historic hub of U.S. independence.
Temperatures in the high 90s Fahrenheit (30 degrees Celsius) were forecast for the Northeast; Philadelphia and Boston could top 100 by Thursday. Throw in humidity, and the real-feel heat index will be even higher at times, the National Weather Service said.
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Stephanie McCallister holds a cold bottle of water to her husband Don McCallister's neck as they wait in line for the ferris wheel at the Great American State Fair on the National Mall, Wednesday, July 1, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jen Golbeck)
Visitors wait to enter the Washington Monument, Wednesday, July 1, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Tom Brenner)
People cross 15th Street Northwest as a National Guard Humvee blocks the roadway, Wednesday, July 1, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Tom Brenner)
Children reach for cold bottles of water from U.S. National Park Police Officer R. Douglass as they wait in line for the ferris wheel at the Great American State Fair on the National Mall, Wednesday, July 1, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jen Golbeck)
A heat dome — high-pressure systems above a region that trap heat and humidity — has been smothering parts of the U.S., from the Midwest to the East Coast. It will add much discomfort amid 250th birthday parades, ship flotillas, outdoor concerts and, in Boston, a public reading of the Declaration of Independence from a historic balcony Saturday.
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani advised residents to stay cool inside and avoid “extraordinary temperatures.”
“To be breaking into triple digits over the course of these many next days — it is of immense concern given that too often the heat is something that is underestimated,” Mamdani said.
Humidity is not uncommon in the Northeast. But Dr. Alexander Azan of NYU Langone Health in New York said high air temperatures and humidity are a dangerous combination.
“Their body doesn’t have that level of acclimatization to respond appropriately to the heat, and so heat stress in the form of what we call heat exhaustion, and in more severe cases, heat stroke, can occur at much lower temperatures than we see in people who live in the South,” Azan said.
Cities in particular are at greater risk, experts say.
"The concentration of concrete, asphalt, steel, all of those materials help to retain heat,” said Vijay Limaye, a climate scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council. “The number on your phone may actually not reflect the true temperature profile that you’re going out into.”
New York City said more than 200 teams of government workers and volunteers will check on homeless people and encourage them to get inside. There will be hundreds of cooling centers, from the Javits Center convention hall to vans to outdoor spots with misting fans.
The American Kennel Club’s Museum of the Dog in New York is allowing visitors to bring their dogs to cool off, through Sunday. Executive Director Christopher Bromson said he got the idea from seeing his own Newfoundland sprawled on the museum’s cool floor.
“I thought every dog should have access to this,” he said.
In Washington, D.C. where the high temperature was 95 F (35 C), thirsty children reached for cold bottles of water from U.S. Park Police as they waited in line for the Ferris wheel on the National Mall.
In the Midwest, meanwhile, heat risks remained. Taylor Harnist, whose Cincinnati business installs and repairs air conditioners, said he was trying to keep his employees comfortable with breaks, water and electrolyte drinks.
“You get an attic job when it’s this hot, we do them but it’s strenuous,” Harnist said. “It’s so hot the attics will reach temperatures of 145 degrees.”
Jeff Schlegelmilch, associate professor at Columbia University Climate School, said heat is one of the easiest things to attribute to climate change.
“We have seen a continued increase in longer summers, hotter temperatures, hotter temperatures earlier on, more evaporation of moisture, higher humidity — effects like that,” he said.
Associated Press writers Jennifer Peltz in New York and Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin, contributed to this report.
Stephanie McCallister holds a cold bottle of water to her husband Don McCallister's neck as they wait in line for the ferris wheel at the Great American State Fair on the National Mall, Wednesday, July 1, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jen Golbeck)
Visitors wait to enter the Washington Monument, Wednesday, July 1, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Tom Brenner)
People cross 15th Street Northwest as a National Guard Humvee blocks the roadway, Wednesday, July 1, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Tom Brenner)
Children reach for cold bottles of water from U.S. National Park Police Officer R. Douglass as they wait in line for the ferris wheel at the Great American State Fair on the National Mall, Wednesday, July 1, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jen Golbeck)
WASHINGTON (AP) — One of the stars of the American firmament once advised citizens of all stripes how to express their love of country. Mark Twain's long-ago words capture how Americans are stepping out this week to wish their nation a happy milestone birthday.
“Our patriotism is medieval, outworn, obsolete,” Twain wrote in 1905. “The modern patriotism, the true patriotism, the only rational patriotism, is loyalty to the Nation all the time, loyalty to the Government when it deserves it.”
In these rabidly partisan times, those who think President Donald Trump deserves their support and those who don’t are joining in celebration of the 250th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. Whether all the partying to come gives the nation a breather from disunity or aggravates it is an open question.
It's a proud and loud moment, sown with division and doubt.
Love of country comes in different flavors, of course. Some love it as is. Some love what it could become and press on with their activism and protest in pursuit of history's call for a “more perfect union." Some love what it used to be and might be once more — the underpinning of MAGA.
But overall, belief in American exceptionalism has waned. More people in the U.S. think there are better countries in the world than those who think the United States is the best. That’s according to an April poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research that found 44% endorsing the United States as just one of the best.
This is not the America of, say, Teddy Roosevelt, whose presidential library Trump is visiting in North Dakota on Wednesday. Roosevelt mirrored the brashness and ambition of a country surging in innovation, industry, influence, military muscle and spirit.
In its place is a country where the president is his own brand of brash, but millions of the people he leads wonder if it's all coming apart.
For the 250th, the division starts at the top, with two organizations claiming to be the one leading the commemoration and all but ignoring the other.
A decade ago, Congress created the bipartisan America250 group and charged it by law with planning the country’s local, national and international events for the 250th. Trump stepped on that with an executive order making his Freedom 250 group “the” national organization in charge.
Marquee events like the Fourth of July fireworks at the National Mall, the parade of tall ships in New York and the Great American State Fair along the National Mall are the province of Trump's Freedom 250. Musical stars who had been lined up for the splashy opener of the fair last week withdrew, concerned Trump, a Republican, would make the festivities political and very much about him.
He stepped forward to fill the void, declaring himself the “No. 1 attraction," and he delivered a speech there June 24 on American glory and his achievements. He'll headline the official July Fourth events in the capital as well, for what he called “the most spectacular TRUMP RALLY of them all."
America250, meantime, put together America's Block Party — a series scheduled simultaneously around the country anchored by a Fourth of July benefit concert in Los Angeles hosted by Queen Latifah, with Chris Stapleton and the Smashing Pumpkins among the acts.
By congressional mandate, America250 is also sinking a 900-pound (400-kilogram) time capsule in Philadelphia with items from all states and branches of government, to be pried open in 250 years.
The people of 2276 will then see a major league baseball lineup from 2026, poems from Alabama, Illinois, Kentucky and more, postcards from Colorado and Maine, beaded artwork from Montana, an Oklahoma belt buckle, a message in a vintage Coca-Cola bottle, a pocket Constitution signed by the U.S. justices, a George Washington Lord’s Prayer gold medal from Utah given out at the Wedding of the Rails event celebrating completion of the Transcontinental Railroad in 1869, and more.
In Philadelphia, where the founders signed the declaration and birthed the nation, 250 people will form the contours of the Liberty Bell in a parade with 50 marching bands and Miss America delegates, formerly called contestants, representing every state.
Though there are official events galore, it's not as if Americans, of all people, need the government to show them a good time.
In one of thousands of gatherings under the national radar, Evans, Pennsylvania, will hear the Circle of Friends Choir perform patriotic songs a cappella in an event also featuring a patriotic trivia contest and a barbershop quartet.
In Pocatello, Idaho, drag queens organized a reading of patriotic picture books for young people, including the story of Katharine Lee Bates. Bates returned from the Colorado Rockies, where the spacious skies, purple mountain majesties and fruited plains inspired her to write the poem that became “America the Beautiful.”
Twain, the scold and satirist of American government and of imperialism, shared Bates' love of his country's natural beauty. He loved the nature of its people, too — sometimes. “We glorious Americans will occasionally astonish the God that created us,” he wrote.
But a century before Make America Great Again grabbed the political zeitgeist by the lapels, he was speaking of good old days lost.
This story has been corrected to show the benefit concert host’s name is Latifah, not Latifa.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., left, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., unveil the Congressional Time Capsule at the Capitol, Wednesday, June 24, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
The crew of Ecuador's sail training vessel BAE Guayas wave to onlookers from the ship's mast as they dock at the Port of Baltimore ahead of the Sail250 event Wednesday, June 24, 2026, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Mingson Lau)
People listen before President Donald Trump speaks at the opening of the Great American State Fair on the National Mall, Wednesday, June 24, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
The George Washington Bridge's two towers are lit ahead of America's 250th birthday, Monday, June 29, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)
People watch Rodeo250 at the Great American State Fair on the National Mall, Saturday, June 27, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jen Golbeck)
The U.S. Capitol is seen through fog behind the ferris wheel at the Great American State Fair on the National Mall, Sunday June 28, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jen Golbeck)
