Early-season heat dome brings highest temperatures in years to parts of Eastern US

New York – An intense and almost historic weather model cooks a large part of America under a dangerous heat dome this week with three -digit temperatures in places that have not been so hot for more than a decade.

The heat wave is particularly threatening because it strikes cities like Boston, New York and Philadelphia at the beginning of summer, when people did not adapt their bodies to grill conditions, several meteorologists said. The high pressure dome that beware of the east of the United States traps the hot air in the southwest which has already made an uncomfortable stop in the Midwest.

A key measure of the high pressure force broke a record on Monday and was the third highest reading for any date, which made an “almost historic” heat wave, said private meteorologist Ryan Maue, a former chief scientist of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The worst heat was to peak for the northeast cities on Tuesday, the forecasters said.

“Like an air fryer, it’s going to be hot,” said Maue. “This is a three -day dangerous heat section that will test the courage of city dwellers which are most vulnerable to waves of oppressive heat.”

A heat dome occurs when a large area of ​​high pressure in the upper atmosphere acts as a reservoir, trapping heat and humidity. A heat wave is the persistence of heat, generally three days or more, with unusually hot temperatures.

Almost three -quarters of the country’s population – 245 million people – will be suffocating with 90 degrees Fahrenheit (around 32 Celsius) or higher temperatures on Monday, and 33 million people, almost 10% of the country, will feel at 100 degrees on Tuesday (around 38 Celsius) on Tuesday. The Heat Health government website has shown the highest level of heat risk in the Chicago bands in Pittsburgh and North Carolina in New York.

These three -digit air temperatures – with the index resembling even worse sensations because of humidity – are possible in places where it is unusual. New York has not seen 100 degrees since 2011 and Philadelphia, which should have three -digit consecutive days, has not reached this brand since 2012, said the central meteorologist of the Bernadette Woods Placky climate.

In downtown Baltimore, temperatures climbed in the 90s earlier Monday afternoon, leading dozens of people to cool off to the St. Vincent de Paul resource center. A few houses of houses, the historic Broadway Market in the city closed early when the building’s air conditioning broke.

The Heat forced the cancellation of events in West Baltimore, said Eric Davis Sr., who spends most of his days working on a baseball field there.

“You cannot have children who have a heat stroke,” he said. “It’s too hot today.

Noaa meteorologist David Roth said he was taking time to acclimatize to summer heat and this heat dome could be a shock for some.

“You are talking about certain places that could be 40 degrees warmer than last week. So it’s a big problem,” he said.

The heat is part of the long -term warming of the earth. In the United States, summers are 2.4 degrees (1.3 degrees Celsius) than 50 years ago, according to NOAA data. Climate change of human origin has made this heat wave three times more likely than without burning coal, petroleum and gas, the climate climate Caltimy calculated central, using computer simulations comparing the current weather for a fictitious world without industrial greenhouse gases.

A key question is how much humidity will add to discomfort and danger of heat.

MAUE provides dry air which can be a degree or two or three warmer than expected by the NOAA, but more comfortable. The other meteorologists expect a worst: sticky, humid and even more dangerous.

“The” Big Deal “will be that humidity will be provided with the wet conditions of the end of spring,” said Oklahoma meteorology teacher Jason Furtado. “The high pressure zone will allow a lot of evaporation to occur from locally and regionally damp terrains, which will increase the heat clues a little.”

Woods Placky said dew points, a key measure of humidity in the 1970s. It’s downright tropical, with some places approaching an 80 dew point – a wooden level that Placky said that “you are in a swimming pool” and “the atmosphere absorbs you.”

If this heat was later in summer, it might not be so dangerous because the human body can adapt to temperatures seasonally, but it arrives a few days after the solstice, Woods Placky and others said.

“It will be a shock for the system,” she said.

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The writers of the Associated Press Isabella O’malley in Philadelphia and Lea Skene in Baltimore contributed.

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