Scorching temperatures swept the Northeast on Sunday within the area’s first extended warmth wave of the summer time, with a record-breaking 5 straight days of triple-digit temperatures in Newark and blistering warmth in Boston; Providence, R.I.; and Manchester, N.H.

Other components of the nation additionally sweltered, with Oklahoma enduring temperatures which have topped 100 levels in 9 of the previous 11 days.

The baking warmth underscored the sobering actuality that such harmful temperatures have gotten a summertime norm for the United States and elsewhere, with warmth waves, wildfires and droughts disrupting day-to-day life throughout the globe.

Heat waves within the United States jumped from a mean of two per 12 months within the Nineteen Sixties to 6 per 12 months by the 2010s. The final seven years have been the warmest within the historical past of correct worldwide information.

Credit…Katherine Taylor for The New York Times

The Northeast warmth surge, which hit a few of the nation’s most densely populated corridors, despatched residents scrambling for reduction. In New York City, temperatures stayed simply shy of document highs Sunday afternoon, hitting 94 in Central Park, as strains shaped on the metropolis’s swimming pools, regardless of many going through lifeguard shortages.

William Jimenez, 59, introduced his 13-year-old son to the Crotona Park pool within the Bronx early within the day, realizing that the spot can be mobbed later.

“The weather is getting hotter and hotter,” he mentioned. “The best thing is to be in the pool and the park.”

Elsewhere within the Bronx, many streets became asphalt water parks, due to open fireplace hydrants spilling onto sidewalks. In a number of spots wood planks have been prolonged into the road for folks to keep away from the small rivers.

Tina Hernandez, 24, and her 12-year-old stepdaughter laughed as they flicked water at one another by an open hydrant on Monroe Avenue.

“It’s definitely been crazy,” Ms. Hernandez mentioned. “The house is the hottest part in the summer. We’ve been trying to run inside the sprinklers. It’s been hard keeping cool.”

In Newark, the temperature reached 102 levels, a document for the date and the fifth day of above 100-degree readings, the longest recorded streak for town. Providence hit 98 levels, breaking its earlier document of 94 in 1987, and Boston reached a sweltering 100 levels, breaking its earlier document of 98 in 1933. Philadelphia hit 99 levels, breaking its document of 98 from 2011, and Manchester, N.H., recorded a temperature of 97, topping its earlier excessive on the day of 95.

From Boston to Philadelphia to St. Louis, main cities declared warmth emergencies and advisories that lasted all through the weekend, some triggering providers to maintain residents cool, like opening libraries as cooling centers. In notoriously swampy Washington, D.C., the place temperatures hovered within the 90s, officers extended opening hours for some of the city’s pools, and Kansas City, Mo., released tips on Twitter for residents to maintain warmth from damaging the foundations of their properties.

Philadelphia, which declared a warmth emergency beginning on Thursday, halted a plan to close off water to prospects with delinquent payments, citing the warmth wave.

Credit…Kenny Holston for The New York Times

Terry Greene, 62, mentioned he used to benefit from the Washington, D.C., warmth however has grown grateful for air-conditioning on the church the place he’s employed as a upkeep employee.

“If I’m going to be working outside, I just prepare for it. I know to come early in the morning,” Mr. Greene mentioned.

Farther south, Jesse Williams, 40, was gearing up for an extended shift in entrance of a 600-degree oven at Memphis Pizza Cafe in Memphis, Tenn., the place the National Weather Service issued a warmth advisory. Temperatures have been anticipated to hit practically 100 levels.

“If I didn’t have this little shop fan blowing on me, I’d probably get heat stroke,” Mr. Williams mentioned.

In Boston, race organizers postponed the city’s annual triathlon. In New York, organizers shortened an analogous race to account for the temperatures; the water temperature soared to almost 80 levels when the race began round daybreak.

Credit…Gabby Jones for The New York Times

In Philadelphia, the utility PECO rolled out strategies for purchasers to save lots of electrical energy, like washing garments in chilly water and putting in window coverings. In New York, Allan Drury, a spokesman for Con Edison, mentioned that this week represented the height demand of electrical energy all summer time. Since Monday, there have been greater than 28,400 scattered energy outages within the New York space, concentrated primarily in Westchester and the Bronx, Mr. Drury mentioned.

“I’m 53 years old, and I don’t remember it ever being this hot,” mentioned Lonnie Coleman, a retired Philadelphia School District worker who relaxed by the Schuylkill within the morning hours on Sunday, hoping to beat the afternoon warmth.

Elsewhere in Philadelphia, kids, canines and some adults splashed within the shallow water on the Logan Square fountain.

Laura McSloy, a meals service employee from the Brewerytown part, was sitting within the fountain pool.

“It’s so hot out that it made me feel bad for the dog,” Ms. McSloy, 47, mentioned.

Credit…Kriston Jae Bethel for The New York Times

Temperatures past the Northeast additionally skyrocketed. Outside Tulsa, Okla., Charley Pearson, 63, mentioned the extended warmth had been tough for the small volunteer Fire Department of which he’s chief. He described a person who had collapsed outdoors his residence with coronary heart issues.

“The man was in sun, no shade to find, so here we are outside pumping chest in 104-, 105-degree weather,” he mentioned.

In downtown Oklahoma City, the place temperatures rose to 96 levels by the early afternoon, kids performed within the water characteristic at Scissortail park, laughing and splashing. But the characteristic wasn’t only for play: It is a last-ditch ingesting supply for a few of the metropolis’s homeless folks. Brian Brust, 52 and newly homeless, mentioned it was one of many first classes he discovered when he began residing on the streets.

“People tell me it’s the place to go,” Mr. Brust mentioned. “It’s hard to find water on the streets.”

He waited within the shade of the Ronald J. Norick Downtown Library with quite a few different homeless folks round midday. It is among the state’s 75 designated cooling facilities however didn’t open till 1 p.m.

The crippling warmth on Sunday descended as pockets of the nation have been already struggling to handle a wave of heat-related emergencies, just like the Southwest’s crippling drought and a distressingly lively wildfire season in New Mexico, Arizona and California. The Oak Fire, close to Yosemite National Park, has scorched greater than 14,000 sq. acres.

A equally scorching warmth wave is about to brush components of the Northwest subsequent week, with cities like Seattle anticipated to face temperatures that prime 100 levels.

Credit…Gabby Jones for The New York Times

In the Bronx, Wanda Rosser, 58, and Yvonne Miles, 62, pals for over 40 years, sat within the shade outdoors the New York City Housing Authority’s Butler Houses improvement on Sunday afternoon.

They had completely different reactions to the warmth.

“I’m a summer baby,” Ms. Rosser mentioned. “Just enjoy it!”

But Ms. Miles mentioned she struggled along with her bronchial asthma within the scorching climate.

Still, she mentioned, “You’ve got to live. It’s Mother Nature.”

Reporting was contributed by Adam Bednar, Téa Kvetenadze, Jon Hurdle, Luke Vander Ploeg, Ben Fenwick, Alex Traub and April Rubin.

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