Millions Across 11 States Told To Stay out of Sun, Limit Activity
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Millions of Americans across almost a dozen states were instructed to stay out of the sun and limit outdoor activities, as the National Weather Service (NWS) issued a sweeping series of extreme heat warnings and advisories amid dangerous temperatures.
Dozens of cities in 11 states throughout the South, Midwest, and Southwest face dangerous heat, prompting health alerts and safety guidance for vulnerable communities.
Why It Matters
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned that extreme heat is the deadliest weather phenomenon in the United States, causing more than 700 deaths annually. Vulnerable populations, including children, seniors, and people with chronic health conditions, face elevated risks of heat-related illness such as heat stroke and exhaustion. Rising temperatures also amplify ground-level ozone pollution, compounding risks for those with asthma or heart complaints.
People drink water as they walk along the National Mall near the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C., on July 25, 2025, as a heat dome sits over the region leading to extremely high temperatures.
People drink water as they walk along the National Mall near the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C., on July 25, 2025, as a heat dome sits over the region leading to extremely high temperatures.
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What To Know
According to the NWS Extreme Heat Warning map and recent reports, extreme heat warnings are in effect for 11 states—affecting hundreds of cities and millions of residents.
The hardest-hit areas were parts of Iowa, southwest Minnesota, northeast Nebraska, and most of South Dakota. These regions are forecast to experience heat index values at or above 110 degrees Fahrenheit.
In their statements on the heat warning, the NWS advised: "Drink plenty of fluids, stay in an air-conditioned room, stay out of the sun, and check up on relatives and neighbors."
Officials reiterated not to leave children or pets unattended in vehicles, as car interiors can reach deadly temperatures within minutes.
"For the Heat Advisory, warm and muggy conditions will continue early this morning. For the Extreme Heat Warning, dangerously hot conditions with heat index values 111 to 115 expected," the NWS said.
Simultaneously, less severe heat advisories stretched across the South, Midwest, and Northeast—including Georgia and southeast South Carolina, where forecast heat index values routinely top 100 F.
Cities across affected regions have opened cooling centers for residents without air conditioning, with officials encouraging people to stay indoors and avoid outdoor activities during peak heat hours.
The exact temperature thresholds that trigger heat advisories vary geographically, but all current warnings indicate conditions that push the human body beyond normal heat tolerance limits.
What People Are Saying
The NWS in Phoenix, Arizona, said in a statement on Sunday: "Drink plenty of fluids, stay in an air-conditioned room, stay in the shade, and check up on relatives and neighbors.
"Do not leave young children and pets in unattended vehicles. Car interiors will reach lethal temperatures in a matter of minutes.
"Take extra precautions when outside. Wear lightweight and loose fitting clothing. Try to limit strenuous activities to early morning or evening. Take action when you see symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat stroke."
What Happens Next
At the time of publication, the latest extreme heat warnings remain in effect until at least 9 p.m. CDT Thursday, with the NWS advising residents to stay informed as conditions may shift.
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These findings have introduced the startling possibility that, beyond food, we could control some of the most uncontrollable urges that people struggle with, often to the detriment of their health. But they also bring us to the big question: If we can turn down the volume of our desire, how might that change the very emotions that make us human, the experience of our deepest joys and pleasures? What the science on desire can tell us about GLP-1s I've started to think of the dilemma these drugs present this way: Can I cut off the part of my brain that compels me to reach for a bag of potato chips at night, without compromising the desire to sit down and read books with my children? Unfortunately, we simply don't know yet. Scientists aren't exactly sure how these complex human desires interact. The desire to eat, for example, is one of our oldest evolutionary impulses, Berridge, the Michigan neuroscientist, told me. Can we really mess with that ancient part of our brain without unintended consequences? There are at least two ways of thinking about what the answer might be. First, the (maybe) good news: Berridge's research has focused on the distinction between wanting something and liking it. He told me if Ozempic can eliminate our unchecked wanting of something that's bad for us — such as fatty, processed foods or alcohol, for example — but still maintain our enjoyment of it, that would suggest people who take it are not suddenly at risk of losing all of the pleasure in their lives, including other things that also cause a surge of dopamine in our brains, like finishing a creative writing project after months of work or cherishing conversations with your friends. This is a concept that my former colleague Brian Resnick explored last year: GLP-1s have the ability to manipulate a figurative 'dial of desire' in our brains, which could be leveraged for good. In the 1980s, Berridge worked on a series of experiments with a colleague, Terry Robinson, in which they eliminated dopamine in rats. What they observed was the rats stopped voluntarily eating, drinking, and seeking other rewards set up by the investigators. However, when they were given something sweet to eat, their faces would react positively to the taste, just as they normally would. That reactivity, the researchers postured, was a proxy for their joy. The rats could also still become averse to new sensations, which again affirmed a capacity for strong emotions, even if their compulsiveness had been removed. Berridge told me he actually doubted their findings at first — how could you like something but not want it? — but it continued to be replicated in experiments by other investigators over the years. In one particularly revealing experiment from 2005, participants were given cocaine and a dopamine-blocking drug. They still liked the cocaine when they were given it, but their desire for additional cocaine was dampened when the dopamine was blocked. The study was small, but it affirmed Berridge and Robinson's initial insight: Dopamine appears to influence the wanting of things, rather than the liking of them. Early studies of Ozempic patients indicate most participants still enjoy their food despite their compulsion to eat being reduced. Some of them, including some of the patients I spoke with, also found themselves desiring healthier foods. 'That's encouraging,' Berridge told me. 'I would say that's a good thing.' However, another way of understanding desire would raise more cause for concern. Jackie Andrade, a psychology professor at the University of Plymouth, has worked with colleagues on the Elaborated Intrusion Theory, which proposes that all our cravings are not unique brain processes but part of our general motivation. According to this theory, when we encounter certain 'triggers' — such as a physical sensation or some environmental cue — the trigger leads to a burst of spontaneous thoughts about an object of our desires. And when we begin mentally picturing our desire, our craving for it only increases. Here is the key finding, Andrade told me: The object of desire — whether it be alcohol, chocolate, or cigarettes — is less important than the underlying mental processes involved in craving. The brain mechanisms are the same regardless of the craving, based on their observations of people's brain patterns when being presented with different triggers. We crave something because the image of it in our minds is briefly pleasurable and thinking about whatever it is boosts our mood, which in turn strengthens the craving and our awareness that we don't have it. This explains one of the conundrums about desire: Our desires are thoughts and thoughts require mental effort. So why aren't they easier to shake? This cycle of environmental triggers — seeing a billboard advertising fast food or attending a cookout with chips and dip on display — leads to our imagining the craving, which leads to both pleasure if we satisfy it and frustration if we don't, which is why we feel such strong impulses to resolve the cravings. But, at least according to the Plymouth researchers' work, there is not a clear distinction between a craving for a piece of pizza and a craving for something more productive. 'From our research, the cognitive processes are the same for both,' Andrade said. 'Could we have less driven entrepreneurs or marathon runners because they're on these drugs and they're too chilled out to want to do anything? Right now, we don't know.' What we still need to figure out about these drugs Even as their usage explodes, the reality behind these drugs and how they affect our desires is still a mystery. Pills are likely to have the same effect as injections on cravings, Berridge told me, so long as the GLP-1 agonist is still crossing into people's brains. 'In what sense is it reducing wanting? Because there's a couple of possible ways. One way would be to subtract a degree of intensity from every want,' Berridge said. 'So addictive wants go down, but then so do the everyday desires in life and even eagerness to go out into the world and face it and do things. That would be bad if it was a general subtraction in intensity of wanting.' 'On the other hand, it is possible that that's not what it's doing, but rather it's lowering the ceiling,' he continued. 'So really intense peaks of wanting can't go so high, but things below that ceiling can still remain normal.' In other words, GLP-1 agonists can only decrease the intense peaks of our cravings, which could allow us to, for example, not binge-eat or overdrink — without eliminating a more normal intensity of wanting for other things. The problem is, Berridge said: 'I don't know of any actual studies that have asked this question.' He said he would like to see a study that measures people's motivation to pursue a wide range of incentives, both mild and intense ones, when on and off one of these drugs. Researchers at the University of Plymouth are setting up studies that would evaluate behavioral changes in people who take the GLP-1 medications. We need more evidence, because what we have right now is circumstantial and inconclusive anecdotes. Peruse the many Reddit communities devoted to these weight-loss drugs and you'll see the subject of cravings come up a lot. Some people describe food cravings that come back after a few months of taking Ozempic or Wegovy. Others report strange new cravings they never experienced before, such as a sudden taste for milk. Some of the changes are expected — decreased desire for nicotine or alcohol — but some are puzzling: One user, a true crime aficionado, described a reduced desire to look at dark or gory materials online after being on a GLP-1 agonist. Others responded by sharing that they were less compelled to shop online or stopped biting their nails. Sarah, the charity development worker from Scotland, told me she started taking a GLP-1 drug three months ago after she gained weight during perimenopause and was struggling to lose it. She's since lost 18 pounds. There have been some physical side effects — fatigue and acid reflux — and she's noticed a significant shift in her cravings. Whereas she used to mix salads with pasta, she finds she no longer craves the carbs. Mashed potatoes used to be one of her favorite foods, but she hasn't eaten that once since going on the medication. At the same time, she has new hankerings for beans and green apples — which she told me she found puzzling because she says she used to hate the sound of teeth crunching into an apple. 'I don't get the same emotions from food,' she told me over email. 'It's nice, I enjoy it, but I don't feel food in the same way.' She, like many other patients, also says she no longer experiences the same desire to drink alcohol. She told me she drinks at most one night on the weekend and no longer attends happy hours with her colleagues like she used to, when she would have a few drinks midweek. 'I don't go and not drink, I just don't go,' she told me. 'Drunk people are tedious when you're sober!' GLP-1s are genuinely promising, but they also reveal our insatiable desire to find a wonder drug that takes care of all of our problems in one pill. Andrade said we should resist that temptation, even if Ozempic and its peers could play a role in helping to address important health crises. Research has consistently found that weight loss tends to be more sustainable when it includes behavioral changes in addition to pharmaceutical interventions. Ideally, you would do both: work on modifying your behavior, while medication assists. Losing weight isn't just about eating less, but eating healthier and exercising more in order to enjoy the health benefits that those positive activities produce. If Ozempic affects all kinds of motivation, patients may not be as driven to adopt those other desirable behaviors. 'If people are taking these drugs, are they more motivated to, say, become more physically active or to eat more healthily? Or are they less motivated because the drugs are doing it for them?' Andrade said. 'There's the risk that people might not want to make changes. If you've still got a bad diet and a sedentary lifestyle, you're building up other problems that are maybe a little bit more hidden because the obesity is not there.' This is already an ongoing subject of concern: Some studies have suggested that people who stop taking Ozempic gain back much of the weight they lost; that may be because they are not adopting desirable new behaviors — better eating, more activity — alongside their taking the drug. On the flip side, some doctors say they also worry about people who take the drugs for reasons other than weight loss but end up undereating and increasing the related health risks of undernourishment. Are these findings a canary in the coal mine for other unexpected and undesirable side effects related to the drug's effects on cravings? It's a genuinely vexing question. After all, many people take these drugs because they do have a problematic compulsive behavior — they eat too much. Getting those cravings under control is the point of getting a prescription. But are people also losing other less obvious desires? Are they losing, in a sense, a part of themselves? The evidence for now is mixed. One Reddit user joked they felt like they were getting mental health care they didn't know they needed. Two Reddit users shared that they had cut down from multiple cups of coffee in the morning to one (or less). 'I'm kind of bummed about it,' one said. 'I love my coffee.' 'Same. I love coffee,' the other poster replied.
