A heat dome over the eastern half of the nation is bringing high temperatures characteristic of July. (WeatherBell.com) October 2 at 4:06 PM It’s another steamy summer day across the eastern half of the United States. The only problem? It’s October. Temperatures are peaking on Wednesday during an extended stretch of high heat and humidity east of the Mississippi River. The mercury is soaring well into the 90s from the nation’s capital to Florida to Texas, and just about everywhere in between. Wednesday looks to be the hottest day before the heat settles south of Interstate 20 by Friday and into the weekend. As of 2:08 p.m., the District of Columbia had broken its all-time monthly high temperature record with a temperature of 98 degrees, easily beating the old record of 96 degrees set on Oct. 5, 1941. The high in Newark hit 94 — 24 degrees above normal […]