From The AP:
With much of the Midwest and the Northeast broiling - or about to broil - in extreme summer heat this week, meteorologists are talking about heat waves and heat domes.
Both mean it's really hot - and people will hear those terms a lot more as the world heats up. What's the difference? Here's what to know:
WHAT'S A HEAT DOME?
It’s helpful to think of a heat dome as what’s happening in the atmosphere. A heat wave is how affects people on the ground, said Ken Kunkel, a research professor of atmospheric sciences at North Carolina State University.
When a high pressure system develops in the upper atmosphere, it causes the air below it to sink and compress. That raises temperatures in the lower atmosphere.
Because hot air expands, it creates a dome that bulges out.
The boundaries of this week's heat dome are not well-defined, Kunkel said, but the National Weather Service has said that the most extreme heat is expected in the Ohio Valley and the Northeast.
The eastern heat dome follows an earlier-than-usual one this month in the Southwest. Last year, there were 645 heat-related deaths in Phoenix.
17 июн 2024
