At Least 25 Dead in New Jersey as a Record Heat Dome Roasts the Eastern U.S.

A brutal heat dome that settled over the eastern United States around the July Fourth holiday has now been preliminarily linked to at least 25 deaths in New Jersey alone, as officials warned that the nation's deadliest weather hazard was again claiming lives largely out of public view. The suspected heat deaths were spread across 10 counties, and many of the victims were found in homes without air conditioning, according to state officials.

At the peak of the event last week, more than 160 million people — roughly half the U.S. population — were under heat alerts, and nearly 180 million faced a "major" or "extreme" heat risk as designated by the National Weather Service. By Sunday the footprint had shrunk but remained enormous, with about 40 million people still under advisories stretching from Jacksonville, Florida, to Philadelphia. Over the course of the week, extreme heat gripped more than 260 million Americans as temperatures topped 90 degrees.

The numbers on July 4 were staggering. Atlantic City reached 106 degrees, the hottest reading on the East Coast, while Washington, D.C., and Raleigh, North Carolina, hit 103. Baltimore, Salisbury, Maryland, and Wilmington, Delaware, each touched 102 degrees, and Charlotte, Fayetteville and Norfolk all cleared 100. Heat indices in many places climbed into the 105-to-115-degree range, pushing bodies past the point where they can cool themselves.

"Extreme heat is the number one weather-related killer in America, and this is the hottest stretch we've seen in over 14 years," New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill said, urging residents to check on elderly neighbors and to seek out cooling centers. Officials across the region echoed the warning, noting that heat kills more Americans in a typical year than hurricanes, tornadoes and floods combined, yet rarely produces the dramatic images that drive people to take shelter.

The heat also spawned violent storms as it broke down. One weather-related death was reported in Illinois after a tree fell during severe thunderstorms. Climate scientists have repeatedly noted that human-driven warming is making heat waves hotter, longer and more frequent, stacking the deck toward exactly the kind of prolonged, high-humidity event that overwhelmed the Eastern Seaboard this week. As the dome finally begins to weaken, the full death toll is expected to climb, since heat fatalities are often confirmed only after autopsies and record reviews in the days that follow.