What is a heat dome?

WASHINGTON – Scorching temperatures brought about by a ‘heat dome’. taxed the Texas grid And it’s expected to spread to other parts of the United States in the coming week, threatening to push the state to record highs before more people are at risk.

“From now on, the heat is going to spread … as far north as Kansas City and all of Oklahoma, all the way to the Mississippi Valley … as far west as the Florida Panhandle and parts of western Alabama,” he said, staying over Texas. also said. Bob Oravec, chief forecaster for the National Weather Service.

Oravec said record highs of around 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43 degrees Celsius) are expected in parts of West Texas on Monday, with no prospect of a recovery in temperatures by Independence Day. matter.

Kori Yadonishi of Dallas summed up the weather: “It’s just too hot here.”

Yadonishi, 40, said he often encourages local friends to visit his home state of Washington to beat the summer heat.

“You can’t go outside, you can’t even go for a walk,” Yadonishi said of the hot weather in Texas.

According to Texas climatologist John Nielsen Gammon, the heat dome is created when a stationary anticyclone with warm air combines with warmer-than-usual air over the Gulf of Mexico and heat from the sun nearly overhead.

“By the height of summer, it becomes harder for hot air to rise,” says Nielsen Gammon, a professor at Texas A&M College of Atmospheric Sciences. “If that happens, now is the time of the year.”

Nielsen Gammon said July and August don’t get as much sunlight because the sun is receding from the sun. summer solsticeit was Wednesday.

“What’s a little different about this heat wave is that April and May were pretty wet, and that extra humidity usually acts as an air conditioner,” said Nielsen-Gammon. rice field. “But the air up there is so hot that it didn’t prevent a heat wave from happening, and it actually made it a little bit more humid.”

The heat wave continues this week, with the Texas Power Reliability Council, the Texas power grid operator, being affected by the heat wave. I asked a resident last week Due to the expected record demand on the system, we need to voluntarily reduce our power usage.

More than 46 million people from west Texas and southeastern New Mexico to the western Panhandle of Florida are now on heat stroke alerts, according to the National Integrated Heat Stroke Health Information System. NIHHIS is a joint project of the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

heat is coming after the storm on sunday The incident reportedly killed three people, cut power to more than 100,000 customers in Arkansas and Tennessee, and cut power to tens of thousands in Georgia, Mississippi and Louisiana. blackout.us.

Earlier this month, Oregon’s most populous county sued for $1.5 billion To recoup costs related to extreme weather events related to climate change, over a dozen large fossil fuel companies: deadly 2021 heat dome.

Multnomah County, home to Portland and known for its typically temperate climate, said that compound carbon pollution emitted by businesses was responsible for and exacerbated by record temperatures in the Pacific Northwest that killed 69 people in the county. He argues that it was a big factor.

Chevron attorney Theodore J. Boutras Jr. said in a statement that the lawsuit makes “novel and unsubstantiated allegations.”

Extreme heat is especially dangerous for vulnerable people such as children, the elderly, and outdoor workers need extra support.

Symptoms of heat stroke include profuse sweating, nausea, dizziness, and fainting. Ways to stay cool include drinking cold drinks, applying cold water soaked cloths to your skin, and spending time in air-conditioned environments.

Cecilia Sorensen, a physician and associate professor of environmental health sciences at Columbia University Medical Center, said heat-related symptoms are a growing public health concern due to a warming climate.

“Texas is currently in big trouble around energy insecurity and a worsening climate crisis,” Sorensen said. “This is also one example of how if you are wealthy enough to buy air conditioning, you are safer. This is a big issue for health equity on climate change.”

Since 1993, average daily high temperatures in Texas have increased 2.4 degrees Celsius, or 0.8 degrees Celsius per decade. according data The announcement from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration amid concerns about man-made climate change causing rising temperatures.