“Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot that it do singe yourself.”
William Shakespeare
This week, around 265 million Americans will be feeling the heat. It is highly unusual for the Northeast and Midwest to have such intense heat so early in the year. Some areas will see the longest heat wave in decades. The term “heat dome” has been thrown around a lot recently; so what are heat domes and why are they trending?
What are heat domes?
We all know what a heat wave is – an unusually hot few days of weather. Meanwhile, a heat dome refers to what’s happening up in the atmosphere. When a high-pressure system forms, it forces the air below to sink and compress, and can trap it under a dome, making the heat even more intense. Think of it like a lid on a pot of steaming water. The dome becomes stuck in place until a cold front moves through to break it up. This can take days.
People in the Southwest are no strangers to oppressive heat. Last summer, a heat dome contributed to Texans having 55 days over 100°. More recently, Arizona struggled with record-setting heat. And if we think it’s bad here, just look at Mexico, India, or Pakistan. Also, hundreds of people died during their Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, where temperatures reached 125° in the shade this week.
It’s worth pointing out that most people reading this (including me) are doing fine because of air conditioning. We are the lucky ones. Millions of people in the United States and around the world do not have this luxury where they live and work. Heat domes aren’t just inconvenient – they are dangerous, and even deadly.
Why are they trending?
While it’s true we have always had heat waves, human-caused climate change is making heat domes more frequent, severe, and long-lasting. This is the elephant in the room, and the reason we need to stop burning fossil fuels as quickly as possible. A certain amount of warming is “baked in” (pun intended) because of the CO2 already in the atmosphere. But once we get to net-zero emissions, CO2 levels will start to drop, and so will the average temperature. Until that point, we are just adding fuel to the fire.
What can we do?
The Warming Stripes graphic shows us the progression of rising temperatures over time. Yesterday was the annual “Show Your Stripes” day, raising awareness about our warming planet. It hit home more than usual this year. We can help by sharing the stripes on social media, or otherwise talking about the connection between the extreme heat and climate change. Like Shakespeare suggests, let’s stop singeing ourselves.
Let’s do something about climate change. Learn about it. Think about it. Talk about it.