U.S. Heat Wave Forecast: When High Temperatures Will Affect You

Summer isn’t wasting any time.

A “significant and extremely dangerous heat wave” is sending temperatures soaring across much of the United States this weekend, with unhealthy levels of heat stretching from the Central Plains to the East Coast, according to forecasters with the Weather Prediction Center, and it is expected to continue into next week.

Temperatures at the end of spring have been relatively mild across the East, and Alex Lamers, a forecaster with the center, warned that those cooler-than-normal temperatures might mean that this sudden first burst of extreme heat is all the more dangerous because people in many areas have not acclimated to it yet.

“This will certainly be the first big heat wave of 2025 for the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, as well as a large portion of the Midwest,” Mr. Lamers said.

More than 100 million people are under heat warnings.

The temperatures began heating up across the Central Plains and the Upper Midwest, from Texas through Minnesota, on Friday as a warm air mass moved east. By Saturday, the heat will stretch all the way from Denver to Washington, D.C.