AT least 90 percent of Americans will swelter in a 90F coast to coast heatwave this weekend as the country is braced to break temperature records.

Over 1,200 heat records and 159 July heat records have already fallen across the country and more records are expected to shatter as the heat wave continues into the weekend and next week.

Temperatures in northeastern states will be in the low-to-mid nineties by the weekend as they start to rise from Thursday.

The mercury will jump 15-20F in New York and Boston – just a week after the Big Apple experienced rain and gales brought by Tropical Storm Fay, according to CNN.

Temperatures in New York City will feel like 95-105F with humidity.

Philadelphia and Washington DC will see temperatures hit nearly 100F by early next week.

Scorching temperatures will continue in the south of the country which has prompted the National Weather Service issuing heat warnings for approximately 10million people, according to CNN.

The relentless heat is set to continue in Palm Springs as a high of 113F is forecast for Sunday.

The city set a temperature record of 121F last Sunday – the same day that Death Valley recorded a scorching temperature of 128F -the hottest on the planet for three years.

At least 50million Americans were placed under a heat warning.

Park rangers were photographed beside a thermometer reading 129F alongside the caption “Near record heat!”

“This weekend Death Valley National Park experienced another extreme heat wave, with official temperatures reaching a high of 128°F!”

The park service later clarified over their Facebook page: “The famous thermometer at Furnace Creek Visitor Center usually shows temperatures a degree or two hotter than the official temperatures.

“The Celsius readings unfortunately currently glitching, as electronics all too often have issues in this climate.”

Temperatures in excess of 120F in California and Arizona deserts and 110F in western parts of Texas over the coming weeks will not be uncommon.

The US is currently baking under a heat dome – formed when vast areas of sweltering heat become "trapped" under a high pressure dome.

The larger a heat dome grows, the longer the heatwave lasts.

The heat dome is expected to move northwards firstly into the Mississippi Valley then into the Ohio Valley and Mid Atlantic states over the coming days.

Temperatures approaching the 100s in cities such as St Louis, Chicago, Indianapolis and Washington DC are likely over the coming days.

Although such heat waves are common in the summer, climatologists expect them to become even more frequent in line with climate change.

Dr. Renee McPherson, university director of the South Central Climate Adaptation Science Center, warned: “Our own projections indicate an additional 10-40 days per year of 100-[degree] days by mid-century, and up to two months more of these extreme heat days each year by the end of the century, if we continue to increase our carbon emissions as we have in the past.”

More than 600 people in the US are killed by extreme heat every year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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