Family Life

08.11.10 | FL News Team

It's another day of sweltering heat and humidity for much of the eastern half of the nation.  Forecasters say the mercury will soar toward triple digits again from the Plains and Midwest to the East Coast.  The National Weather Service has issued excessive heat warnings from the eastern Plains to the Ohio Valley including Kansas City, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Cincinnati and Memphis.

Dangerously high heat indexes approaching 120 degrees are expected across much of the mid-south.  Heat advisories are also posted across the region from Dallas-Ft. Worth eastward to southern Virginia and North Carolina.  Record or near record highs are expected again today in Baltimore, Philadelphia, Washington, DC and New York City.

A just-released report indicates that the extremely hot summer is merely a harbinger of things to come.  Published by the National Wildlife Federation and the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, the report says, in part, "summers like the current one, or even worse, will become the norm by 2050 if global warming pollution continues to increase unabated."

So far this summer, states from Florida to Maine have endured record or near-record temperatures, and two states, Rhode Island and Delaware, saw their hottest July ever.  Experts say future heatwaves will be especially dangerous for asthma sufferers because of ever-increasing ozone levels.