Dozens of people have died after a blistering heatwave spread across half of the US, sinking planes into tarmac, derailing trains and even being blamed for a spike in murders.
A woman enjoys a sun bath at the Battery Park in New York
Temperatures rose beyond 104F (40C) in cities from Kentucky to Pennsylvania, with a record 107F (41.7C) registered briefly in Washington DC.
Some 16 murders have been recorded in New York City over the past five days, roughly twice the average rate. One city councilman described the city as a "brewing cauldron".
At least 36 more have died across the region in incidents linked to the heat. Most victims were elderly but a four-month-old girl died in Indianapolis after being left in a hot car in 106F heat.
Two people were killed after a train derailed in Chicago, while a US Airways flight was delayed after the plane sank into the softened tarmac of a runway at Reagan airport in Washington.
Meanwhile more than 400,000 people around Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, Maryland, New Jersey and Indiana remain without power in their homes a full week after being lashed by storms, leaving them with no cooling systems or refrigeration.
The US National Weather Service issued excessive heat warnings for several states. "Drink plenty of fluids, stay in air-conditioned rooms, stay out of the sun and check up on relatives and neighbours," it warned residents.
More than 4,500 daily record highs have been recorded around the country over the past 30 days, forecasters said.
The prolonged high temperatures were blamed on a huge "dome" of high-pressure air covering vast swathes of the country, which blocked cooling winds and kept humidity high. Meanwhile the Gulf Stream, which carries warm currents and air from the Gulf of Mexico to north-west Europe, is said to have slowed, leaving Britain cool and wet.
However following storms in New York on Saturday night, a cold front was forecast to drop across the mid-Atlantic region yesterday, bringing rain and thunderstorms. Warnings were issued for large hail.
"Severe weather, including damaging wind, is expected to accompany this cold front," which is heading south from Canada, the Weather Service said.
Across the region, many Americans were electing to stay in their homes or remain close to sources of salvation from the sweltering conditions.
Micah Straight, 36, took his three daughters to dance in jets of water spurting from a "sprayground" near the Logan Square fountain in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
"We got here early, because I don't think we'll be out this afternoon – we'll be in the air conditioning," he told The Associated Press news agency. "So I wanted to get them out, get some sunshine, get tired."
In New York, cinemagoers said that they were there for more than a film.
"Of course we came to cool off!" said John Villanova, a writer visiting the IFC in Manhattan, who was on his second sweaty T-shirt of the day.
The searing temperatures also took their toll on American farmland. "In the primary growing states for corn and soybeans, 22 per cent of the crop is in poor or very poor condition," the US Drought Monitor said.
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