As extreme heat grips the South and West, here's how to stay safe
Here's what's trending across the USA right now:
The U.S. is sweating out its third major heat dome in a month, with some 70 million people affected in an area stretching from roughly New Mexico to North Carolina, covering much of the South and part of the Midwest. This latest extreme weather is again raising the risk of heat-related illness, particularly for millions of people in the affected region who lack easy access to air conditioning.
Adding to this, Daytime temperatures are reaching the 100s in many places, with the "feels like" temperature or heat index — which factors in humidity — even higher.
Meanwhile, Climate Why certain medications can increase your risk in the heat A heat dome is defined as a large, high-pressure atmospheric system that acts as a lid to trap hot air and humidity over an area for days or even weeks. "It's just a very strong area of high pressure. Under that, there's sinking air. Sinking air compresses, it warms, it heats up, and it also dries the air out," according to AccuWeather meteorologist Reneé Duff.
Notably, Later in the week, "the main core of heat [is] shifting a bit farther west" with most of the 90-degree heat shifting to California and parts of the Four Corners region, Duff says. Friday, Saturday and Sunday will see record or near-record temperatures of about 115 degrees around Phoenix, she says.
As per the latest buzz, "A lot of states that are being impacted by the highest temperatures are in severe to extreme drought ," she adds. They include New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and Idaho, Duff says, where "the drier ground lends to higher temperatures."
In further updates, Marc Chenard, a National Weather Service meteorologist, says the extreme heat advisories and warnings that remained in effect through at least Tuesday were concentrated in Arkansas, Tennessee and parts of the Gulf Coast.
On top of that, He acknowledges that the intensity of these heat waves is unusual, with a prime factor likely being El Niño, the cyclical warming of the Pacific Ocean that increases the odds of warmer temperatures in North America.
Climate 'We're screaming into the void.' Across the U.S., heat keeps breaking records "Typically we'll have a couple of these and they may kind of move around through the summer," Chenard says. "But, each one of these has been pretty strong, like the strength has been pretty impressive, and so just the persistence and strength certainly seems anomalous."
Source: NPR