This story was originally published by Wired and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.

As New York City braces for an extreme heat wave amid the July 4th weekend and World Cup festivities, government officials and local hospitals are ramping up efforts to prevent heat-related illness.

Temperatures were expected to reach 100 degrees F on Thursday, with a heat index between 105 and 110 degrees—unusually hot for New York. Friday was expected to be just as sweltering. “These are extremely dangerous conditions, and they will affect every part of our city,” New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani said in a press conference on Tuesday.

Many major cities have heat emergency plans that involve setting up cooling centers, conducting outreach to vulnerable populations, and sending out emergency alerts. With heat waves becoming more intense and common as the planet warms, more cities are writing and implementing these types of plans to keep residents safe.

The risk of heat-related death and illness is expected to grow as extreme heat events become more frequent and intense.

This year, New York City first activated its heat emergency plan on May 19—the earliest it’s ever done so—due to a severe spring heat wave that pushed temperatures past the 90-degree mark across the Northeast. It activated that plan again in preparation for this latest heat wave.

As part of that emergency plan, the city will have more than 650 cooling stations up and running,........

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