The summer of 2024 may be remembered not only for historic temperatures, but for successive heat waves with unusual geographic reach. Here comes another one.
Federal meteorologists say a dome of high pressure over the West is expanding and moving south and east, spreading scorching temperatures from the Pacific Northwest southward for much of the first full week of August.
More than 36 million Americans were under warnings, watches or warnings for dangerous and excessive heat Saturday night, according to data from the National Weather Service.
The weather service said the Plains states, which include Montana, North Dakota, Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas, could see high temperature readings near 105 degrees Fahrenheit as that the heat increases during the first half of the year. of the week.
The Gulf Coast and South also saw triple-digit highs for much of the week, the weather service said. Extremely high temperatures were expected in parts of Louisiana and Mississippi, he noted.
That’s on top of already scorching temperatures in the West, Southwest and Pacific Northwest, which are being affected by the high-pressure dome, forecasters said.
“There are excessive heat warnings for parts of the Pacific Northwest, Great Basin, Southeast California and the Southwest, and heat warnings for parts of the Northern Plains, Northern Rockies and Gulf Coast,” the weather service said in a discussion about forecast on Saturday. .
Areas of particular concern include the interior regions of the Northwest, the Rocky Mountains, the desert Southwest and Southern California — all of which have unusually high daytime temperatures combined with nights that may not provide respite, the weather service said.
“The prolonged nature of the heat will increase the risk of heat-related illnesses,” he said, warning that much of the West would experience dangerous heat next week.
The weather office in Las Vegas, Nevada, warned of excessive heat overnight Tuesday, calling the weather “dangerous” and urging residents to move some activities to the evening, drink water and take breaks at structures with air conditioning.
Temperatures in the 110s were forecast for the deserts of Imperial County between the Southern California coast and Arizona, with the weather service color coded map displaying a magenta blob near the city of El Centro that correlates with a high temperature ceiling of 125 degrees.
Another area of concern is the Gulf Coast, where the heat dome will warm the atmosphere, while tropical waters off the coast will send moisture into the region, which could increase the heat index, or “feel” temperature.
“The combination of high temperatures reaching 100 degrees Celsius along with high humidity will result in a large to extreme risk” of heat-related illnesses, the weather service said.
The weather service has indicated that a cold front later in the week could move east through the Plains states and possibly dissolve at least part of this wave, but so far the official forecast predicts only a taste of summer: hot.
Climate Central, a nonprofit science and journalism organization dedicated to educating Americans about the impacts of global warming, noted in an analysis at the end of June that late spring and summer began in the United States with back-to-back “hot episodes.”
Extreme heat waves, the analysis states, are much more likely due to climate change.
This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com read the full story
