Record Temps Grip East Coast and Hold On

It's a summer scorcher.

The National Weather Service says a warm air mass over the eastern U.S. is sending temperatures rising well above normal from the mid-Atlantic states to Connecticut.

The average temperature for New York's Central Park on July 5 is 83 degrees. But it's expected to hit the mid-90s on Monday.

Utilities asked consumers to conserve energy. Power plants were getting a little help from the calendar. Because Independence Day fell on a Sunday, many people had a day off Monday, and demand was predicted to be lower as a result.

But the extended holiday has increased demand for relief. Five Connecticut state parks have stopped admitting people because they had reached capacity.

Record temperatures have been set or are expected in several places, reports CBS News correspondent Jeff Glor.

And it's not just the level of heat - it's the length of time. Meteorologists don't see a break in this stifling pattern - a ridge of high pressure parked over half the country - until late in the week at the earliest. It will also get more and more humid.

Increasingly New York and other cities are setting up cooling centers -public, air conditioned spaces open to anyone.

Doctors warn that the very old and the very young are most susceptible to heat-related illnesses like hyperthermia and heat stroke.

"They have less ability to tolerate the extremes of temperatures, the extremes of dehydration," Dr. Alton Barron of New York's St Luke's Hospital told Glor.

And the heat this month comes on the heels of what was already a record-setting month of June in many spots. Philadelphia, Washington, and Miami all had their hottest Junes on record.

There have already been at least 14 heat-related deaths in states on the eastern seaboard.

And then there's the power problem. Many more air conditioners are soon to be blasting in homes up and down the coast as millions return from the holiday weekend. Energy companies are preparing for an awful week.

That could mean brownouts later in the week due to the enormous strain on the power grid.