D.C. region cooks under high temperatures amid heat wave

Washington Post

24-06-2025

High heat clamped down on Tuesday across the eastern United States once again, with more than 75 million Americans between North Carolina and Maine spending the day under an extreme heat warning from the National Weather Service.
In Washington, temperatures hit 95 degrees by noon. The heat index, a measure of heat and humidity, climbed to 105, a high enough measurement to trigger public concern and warnings. The high temperatures are the result of a heat dome, or a region of high pressure that stretches over a geographic region, and are expected to continue through Friday, according to The Washington Post's Capital Weather Gang.
For the Washington region, the impacts of the extreme heat and humidity have led to the cancellation of multiple events and caution from local leaders that people should stay indoors.
In D.C., a Stray Kids concert at Nationals Park was reportedly shut down early Monday night due to the heat. The National Park Service closed down the Washington Monument for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday due to concern 'for visitors, and especially staff, who would be outside in the sun on the stone plaza for an extended length of time,' according to Mike Litterst, NPS's chief of communications for the National Mall.
At Washington MedStar Hospital Center, providers saw a handful of patients with heat-related illnesses on Tuesday and two on Monday, according to Lauren Wiesner, the chair of emergency medicine. Such illness is typical when temperatures hit the 90s and above, she said.
MedStar Georgetown treated several people who came to the emergency department Monday evening after they passed out due to the heat during an outdoor concert, a hospital spokesman said.
In Maryland's Prince George's County, call volume for emergency services increased by ten percent over the last 24 hours, according to Alan Doubleday, public information director for Prince George's County Fire/EMS Department, with five specific heat-related calls coming in since 7 a.m. Tuesday morning.
Virginia's major jurisdictions, such as Fairfax County, implemented heat plans, which in Fairfax included opening cooling centers with free bottled water and sunscreen.
Tuesday's heat alerts stretched across parts or all of 26 states. Only corners of the desert Southwest were as hot as the east coast.
Around Miami, by comparison, temperatures peaked around 90 degrees Tuesday afternoon, with humidity making it feel close to 100 degrees.
The heat reached into parts of the Northeast that rarely see such extreme heat: Boston hit at least 101 degrees, a record for the month of June, according to WBZ-TV meteorologist Eric Fisher.
Manchester, New Hampshire, hit the triple digits for only the ninth day on record, according to Weather Channel meteorologist Jonathan Erdman.
Heat-related speed restrictions slowed train traffic on Amtrak's Northeast Corridor, while utility companies, including Con Edison in New York, urged residents to conserve energy as the heat strained the power grid and contributed to outages.
In Baltimore, where a sanitation worker died of heat-related illness last year, city officials told residents that trash collection may take longer than usual as crews took mandatory rest breaks and considered ending routes early or pausing collections as conditions became dangerous.
Down Interstate 95, stifling heat gripped the Carolinas, causing the region's major utility, Duke Energy, to warn that it may not have enough electricity to keep the power going for all customers. The situation has caused the Trump administration to grant Duke Energy an emergency exemption allowing power plants that are not in compliance with federal air pollution rules to temporarily keep running.
Groups of people, some unhoused, congregated in patches of shade midday Tuesday at Northeast Washington's Starburst Plaza.
Nearby, an air-conditioned Metro bus offered a mobile cooling station — one of four stationed throughout the city. The resource is a partnership between WMATA and several D.C. agencies to provide immediate relief from extreme weather.
Tyrone Edwards, a 65-year-old unhoused man who said he has lived in D.C. all his life, found relief from the high heat index on the bus. He said he's seen heat like this affect other homeless people and recalled watching friends die of heat-related causes.
'It shouldn't be that way,' he said, a tear mixing with beads of sweat on his cheek.
An outreach worker from Community Connections, a nonprofit partner of the city's Department of Human Services, handed him a water bottle, and, to an elderly man on the bus, the can of bug repellent he requested.
'The heat is exhausting,' Edwards said. 'It drains you. But we seniors, we look out for each other.'
Outside, outreach workers put their hands into a cooler of fast-melting ice, coming out with bottles of Gatorade for the people in the plaza. The cooler emptied quickly.
Across town, the pool at Anacostia Recreation Center in Southeast Washington barely had a spot of shade by midafternoon as dozens waded in to stay cool.
Steven Washington, 32, took his four kids to this pool for the first time. He typically goes to Fort Stanton Recreation Center — and went to a pool in Oxon Hill, Maryland, yesterday — but came to Anacostia because they had life vests for two of his kids to practice swimming.
Washington was sweating and playing with his kids but said that as long as his family was around and happy, he was staying cool enough.
Curtis Taylor was looking out at the sixteen kids he was leading all day as part of his Capital Cycle Camp. He was sweating but resting while standing on the pool deck.
Taylor, 51, is a social worker for D.C. Public Schools. He runs the camp, which keeps kids, usually ages 6 to 11, active on two wheels for six weeks every summer.
His group started the day at Capitol Hill Presbyterian Church at 9 a.m. They biked over to the Fields at RFK Campus, then Heritage Island, then Anacostia Pavilion — where they rested for lunch — before they plopped down at the pool.
Taylor built in this activity time because he wanted to make sure the kids are not biking outside for longer than two-and-a-half hours straight.
The sweltering days are a time for him to teach his charges some practical ways to beat the heat.
'I emphasize extra hydration in the morning,' Taylor said. 'Often we think about just hydrating while we're moving and while we're in our activity but we've got to hydrate an hour before the activity.'
Taylor said it was unfortunately relevant during yesterday's stretch of the heat wave, when one of his campers stopped sweating at one point because he was so dehydrated.
'It's oppressing,' Taylor's son, Jahwill, 25, said, who works as a manager at the camp. It was too hot to unwind in the way the father and son preferred.
'Your body feels pressurized,' Curtis Taylor said. 'I couldn't even drink a cold [beer].'
Evan Halper and Jenna Portnoy contributed to this report.