US heat dome causes dangerous conditions for more than 100 million people | US news
In the United States, more than 100 million people will face dangerous conditions during the weekend as a heat dome that has burned a large part of the center of the country rushes to the east.
Heat opinions were in place Friday throughout the northeast coast of Portland, in Maine in Wilmington, North Carolina, with the temperatures of the Diurnal Heat Index of 10 to 15F above average in certain places.
Night temperatures will also be very hot and oppressed, according to the National Weather Service (NWS).
While thunderstorms, some of which are serious, should break the heat by Friday evening for the northeast, the heat and humidity will continue to build further south with the most persistent and dangerous conditions expected in the Southeast and the Tennessee valley this weekend.
The heat index is what the temperature looks like when the humidity is taken into account. Friday afternoon, New York is expected to be suffocating under a 106F heat index-slightly higher than Phoenix, Arizona, the most hot city in the United States.
In the Southeast, the heat index could exceed 115F, risking the health and life of people without access to sufficient cooling and / or adequate hydration, warned the NWS. “It will be a long -lasting heat wave, with little or no night relief and high humidity levels, leading to increased danger,” warned the federal service.
High temperatures and high humidity increase the risk of exhaustion of heat, heat diseases and deaths, with children, the elderly and people with existing physical and mental health problems. Outdoor workers – gardeners, manufacturers, farmers and delivery workers – as well as non -loi people and those who have substances consumption problems are particularly vulnerable.
A heat dome is a particular meteorological phenomenon where hot air is trapped in a region by a blocked high pressure system causing high ground temperatures. With little cloud cover due to the high pressure system stuck, the sun’s rays have directly touched the ground, further increasing the heat.
While heat domes cause heat waves – which become more frequent thanks to the climate crisis – there may be waves of heat without heat domes. Climatologists have discovered that heat domes are becoming warmer due to global heating caused by humans burning fossil fuels.
And while the last dome of the United States moves slowly, it continues to cause dangerous conditions in parts of the Mid-South in Mid-Mississippi Valley, with thermal alerts still in place from Oklahoma to Virginia-Western.
In the so -called corn belt, the midwest and certain southern states where most corn is cultivated, a phenomenon known as corn sweat exacerbates humidity and can increase the heat index up to 10F. This is due to the pores on the underside of the corn leaves, where oxygen – and water vapor – are released, said Justin Glisan, Iowa state climatologist, in an interview with CBS News.
Meteorologists have also planned sudden floods in northeast Kansas to a large part of Indiana, as well as possible dispersed thunderstorms in certain parts of New England, North Atlantic and Dakota from the North. Meanwhile, dry and windy conditions sparked a forest fire warning for the red flag for certain parts of UTAH and Oregon.
