It's a furnace-like feeling across central, southern states

Heat wave spreads into the Northeast

Excessive heat, power outages don't mix

(CNN) -- A dangerous heat wave slowly began to ease in the nation's heartland even as it spread into the Northeast, the National Weather Service said.
Twenty-three states and the District of Columbia were under heat advisories early Tuesday.
Excessive heat warnings are in place from western Oklahoma to Connecticut, and from the Deep South to the Ohio Valley.
In these areas, the heat index, or how hot the body feels due to the combined effects of heat and humidity, will reach between 110 and 115 degrees this week.
A 51-year-old man in Granite City, Illinois, died Sunday due to the excessive heat, the Madison County coroner said. Mitsunari Uechi was found unresponsive in his mobile home, where the air conditioning was not working. Police described the residence as "extremely hot," Coroner Stephen Nonn said in a statement.
Uechi was transported to Gateway Regional Medical Center with a body temperature of 104 degrees. He was later pronounced dead, according to the coroner.
Nonn noted that Uechi "suffered from chronic medical problems that placed him in a higher risk for heat-stress related illness."
Several high-temperature records have been broken recently.
Wichita, Kansas, hit 111 degrees Sunday. The National Weather Service says temperatures of 111 degrees have occurred there only 10 times since July 1888.
Also on Sunday, the temperature in tornado-ravaged Joplin, Missouri, hit 106 degrees, and in Springfield, Missouri, it topped 102 degrees. Both these temperatures bested high-temperature records set in the 1980s.
Oklahoma City hit a record high of 108 degrees Thursday, the same day that Tulsa hit a record high of 104 degrees.
High pressure over the Plains is keeping the weather pattern stable, allowing heat to build and expand up the Eastern Seaboard.
Some relief is expected by midweek as the high pressure system weakens and shifts slightly southeast. This will allow thunderstorms to develop in the central Plains.Read more...