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Coast-to-coast
heat
dome to
deliver
sweltering
weather
next
week |
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By
Matthew
Cappucci
washingtonpost.com
Summer
is
supposed
to be
hot. But
this
season
has
featured
many
large-scale
North
American
heat
waves
that
have
roasted
significant
swaths
of the
country,
helping
temperatures
skyrocket
and
toppling
records.
Another
heat
wave is
set to
park
over the
Lower 48
next
week,
bringing
anomalous
summertime
heat to
parts of
the
central
and
eastern
United
States
that may
have
missed
out on
previous
events.
Early
estimates
indicate
that
most of
the
contiguous
United
States
will see
highs
running
10 to 15
degrees
above
average.
When
combined
with
climbing
humidity,
it’ll
feel
like
it’s
well
into the
triple
digits
for
millions.
The
pattern
could
also
spark
severe
thunderstorms,
perhaps
packing
strong
winds,
that
could
roll
through
the
northern
Great
Lakes
and New
England
during
late
July and
August.
On
Thursday,
most of
the heat
was
relegated
to the
western
United
States,
where
temperatures
in
Montana
were
forecast
to climb
into the
100s.
Billings,
Mont.,
has
already
measured
12 days
topping
95
degrees
this
month.
With
highs in
the
upper
90s to
lower
100s
projected
every
day over
the
coming
week, it
is
possible
that
tally
may
climb to
near 20
by the
end of
July.
That
would
mark the
most
95-plus
degree
days in
Billings
in July
since
1936.
Excessive
heat
warnings
are in
effect
for most
of
eastern
Montana,
where
temperatures
could
increase
the risk
for
heat-related
illnesses.
Some
relief
is on
the way
— but
not
much.
“Tonight’s
cold
front
will
bring
very
modest
‘cooling’
for
Friday,
with
highs
tomorrow
in the
90s,”
wrote
the
Weather
Service
in
Billings.
By
Friday
and
Saturday,
that
heat
will
shift
east,
bringing
highs in
the
upper
90s to
near 100
to the
Dakotas
this
weekend.
That’s
just an
appetizer,
however.
The main
heat
event,
which
will
occupy a
much
larger
swath of
the
western
and
central
United
States,
will
just be
getting
started
by then.
On
Monday
and
Tuesday,
attention
turns to
the
Pacific
Northwest
and
northern
Intermountain
West,
where a
renewed
batch of
heat
will
begin to
gather.
That
batch
represents
the
first
signs of
a
building
heat
dome
that
will
drape
itself
across
most of
the
Lower 48
by
midweek.
On
Wednesday,
the heat
dome
should
stretch
from the
Pacific
Coast to
the
Appalachians,
with
hazy and
hot
temperatures
just
about
everywhere
in
between.
The
National
Oceanic
and
Atmospheric
Administration’s
Climate
Prediction
Center
indicates
odds of
near
average
to above
average
temperatures
for the
entire
contiguous
United
States.
It’s too
early to
give
specific
numbers,
but the
Plains
could
see
temperatures
in the
mid-to-upper
90s or
lower
100s as
the heat
wave
builds,
with
mid-to-upper
90s in
the
Southeast
and many
areas
topping
100 in
the
West.
Heat
domes
are
zones of
high
pressure
that
deliver
sinking
air,
which
warms
and
dries as
it
subsides.
A heat
dome can
also
help
bring
clear
skies,
while
deflecting
clouds
and
storm
systems
around
it. That
allows
for
additional
sunshine,
reinforcing
heating.
Since
heated
gases
expand,
in this
case
vertically,
the
“halfway
point”
of the
atmosphere’s
mass may
wind up
nearly a
football
field
higher
than
average
next
week.
While
nearly
everyone
will be
basking
in
summertime
toastiness,
a few
areas
will
trend
closer
to
average.
Early
week
monsoonal
moisture
may
linger
over the
Desert
Southwest
and Four
Corners
region,
keeping
temperatures
a bit
more
modest
as
afternoon
showers
and
thunderstorms
brew.
Another
area to
watch
that may
not
fully
tap into
the heat
will be
parts of
New
England.
Computer
weather
models
hint
that a
lobe of
cool air
may hang
around
at high
altitudes,
keeping
surface
temperatures
closer
to
average.
In
between
there
and the
heat
dome, a
corridor
of
thunderstorm
activity
may crop
up; the
jet
stream
pattern
would
favor
strong
winds.
The
greatest
risk for
strong
to
severe
storms
during
this
period
would be
from the
northern
tier and
Upper
Midwest
through
the
Great
Lakes
region
and into
the
Northeast.
While
heat
domes
are
normal
staples
of the
summer,
the
duration
and
intensity
of said
heat
events
is on
the rise
in
tandem
with
warming
global
temperatures
thanks
to
human-induced
climate
change.
Just
last
month, a
thousand-year
heat
event
that
would
have
been
“virtually
impossible”
without
climate
change
brought
temperatures
of 108
degrees
to
Seattle
and 116
degrees
to
Portland,
Ore.
Lytton,
B.C.,
broke
the
Canadian
national
temperature
record
three
days in
a row,
hitting
121
degrees
before
the town
burned
down in
a
cataclysmic
wildfire.
Meanwhile,
much of
the
United
States
has
spent
days
veiled
by a
layer of
wildfire
smoke
poured
into the
skies by
hundreds
of
blazes
in
western
North
America,
including
the
400,000-acre
Bootleg
Fire in
southeastern
Oregon.
Climate
change
continues
to
accelerate
drought
conditions
taking
hold of
the
West,
fostering
more
favorable
fire
conditions
and more
extreme
wildfire
behavior.
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