Temperatures Will Soar in New York and Chicago This Weekend

(Bloomberg) -- Temperatures will soar across much of the U.S. the next few days, approaching 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 Celsius) from Chicago to New York as the summer’s first heat wave takes hold and spurs electricity demand.

Heat advisories and excessive heat warning stretch from Minnesota to Louisiana and from Nebraska to Ohio, according to the National Weather Service. Bulletins have also been posted in New York and Vermont.

“That is a huge area,” said Bob Oravec, a senior branch forecaster at the U.S. Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland. “I bet today they expand it all the way across the eastern U.S.” to include the southeast.

High pressure is building across the central U.S. that will push east, and that is “a pretty classic heatwave pattern,” Oravec said by telephone. There could be places where temperatures approach 100 degrees. In New York and along the East Coast, Sunday could be the peak.

Such bursts of summer heat can lead to a surge in wholesale electric rates, particularly in the big cities, as households and businesses turn on more fans and air conditioners throughout the day to combat rising temperatures.

To contact the reporter on this story: Brian K. Sullivan in Boston at bsullivan10@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Lynn Doan at ldoan6@bloomberg.net, Joe Richter, Reg Gale

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