A massive heat dome continues to threaten the eastern half of the US, with the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast at the epicenter of the sweltering conditions.
The summer heat is already disrupting July 4 celebrations and World Cup matches, while pushing the nation's largest power grid toward crisis mode later this afternoon for the third consecutive day.
The annual Independence Day Parade in Washington, DC, set for later today was canceled "due to extreme heat," organizers said in an overnight memo.
Cooling demand will surge again later today, just as PJM faces a record load. The grid that serves 67 million people across 13 states has held up so far because of the Trump administration's emergency orders requiring fossil-fuel power plants to run at full capacity. This comes as disastrous climate socialist policies have neutered parts of the grid that collided with a data center boom.
A soul-crushing "Heat Dome" will build across the Eastern United States 🇺🇸into Independence Day weekend🎆70 million population at least 100°F
— Ryan Maue (@RyanWeather) July 1, 2026
Maximum heat wave [Thurs or Fri]🌡️
New York City: 102°F
Washington DC: 104°F
Boston: 101°F
Philly: 104°F pic.twitter.com/xG6uSi0j6z
"On July 2, PJM's peak instantaneous load was approximately 162,700 megawatts between 5 and 6 p.m., according to preliminary figures, but that figure was suppressed by the use of demand response programs," PJM told members and stakeholders in an operations update. "The peak load is likely to have surpassed the all-time PJM record."
The website GridStatus has shown throughout this
