"Heat Dome" That's Been Baking Mexico Spreads To U.S.; Could Impact Rest Of Nation Over The Summer

A schematic of a heat dome over the middle of the
United States. In a heat dome, high pressure
causing sinking air, which ensures strong sun
trapping hot air in place. 

What is known as a "heat dome" - a persistent, torrid high pressure system, has been baking Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, has been expanding in recent days and weeks to affect the United States.   

Heat domes are fairly common mostly over continents in the summer. But they've been getting more intense with climate change. 

The latest heat dome has been killing people, causing droughts and fires, and also triggering intense storms,  especially along its edges.

Mexico City residents are rationing water as drought dries up supplies. The city could run out of water as early as June 26, even as the region's hoped for rainy season starts about then, according to Axios.

The Mexican heat has been brutal on wildlife, too. Mexico's famous howler monkeys have been dying in the heat. As of Sunday, 157 of the monkeys had succumbed in southern Mexico. An endangered salamander looks like it might go extinct because of the heat. 

All time record high temperatures have been set in parts of Mexico, Belize and other Central American and Caribbean nations. 

 The heat has been making inroads into Florida and Texas in recent days. 

Del Rio, Texas reached 109 degrees last week, setting an all time record high for the month of May. 

As of Sunday, four of Houston's 20 hottest May days since the late 1880s happened this month. 

There's been little relief from the heat at night. Kingsville, Texas recently had an overnight "low" of 84 degrees, the highest low temperature on record in May for anywhere in Texas. 

The heat index in Miami was 112 degrees on both May 18 and 19.  That's only happened once before, in  August of last year. But it's only May, so that episode was especially bizarre.

SUMMER DANGER

All this adds a potentially ominous tone for the summer in the United States. It's inevitable that the heat dome will expand into the  Lower 48 and perhaps southern Canada as we move through June, July and August. 

Most likely, it will persist for a few days over a certain region, then shift to somewhere else and back again.  Given the intensity of the heat dome and climate change, this could lead to dangerous all time record highs at the height of summer. 

An intense heat dome in the Pacific Northwest and southwestern Canada in 2021 led to the all-time record high for  Canada of 121 degrees in Lytton, British Columbia. That town burned down the next day in a wildfire that was greatly accelerated by the heat and drought. 

The 2021 heat wave killed 619 Canadians and dozens of people in the U.S. Pacific Northwest as temperatures climbed into the 110s in many locations. 

We risk a similar disaster this summer, but of course we don't know where yet. 

The summer heat dome could also pretty much park itself over one location for much of the summer, like it did in Mexico this spring. That would cause weeks of record high temperatures, deaths from heat and flash droughts.   

HEAT DOMES, CLIMATE CHANGE AND US 

Heat domes have always been a thing. The intense heat and dust bowl droughts of the 1930s were in large part caused by heat domes. 

Climate change is helping to intensify heat domes, here in North America and in Europe and Asia, where heat waves have killed tens of thousands in recent years. Heat waves are not photogenic like most disasters like hurricanes and tornadoes. But heat is the deadliest type of disaster, so they should be taken more seriously than they are. 

We obviously don't know whether or how much any heat domes will affect us here in Vermont. 

Even in this cool, temperate corner of the world, heat can be dangerous in Vermont. An intense July, 2018 heat wave caused six deaths in Vermont and dozens up in Quebec, for instance. 

Again, because of climate change, I think the all time record high temperature in the Green Mountain State - 105 degrees in Vernon, in July, 1911 - might well be broken within the next decade. I imagine Burlington's all-time high of 101 will be challenged, too.

I'm not saying that will happen this year. I imagine it could, but it's all the roll of the dice. 

Long range forecast call for a hot summer in the United States, with the best chance of persistent heat in the western United States and in New England. 

It's been one of the warmest Mays on record in Vermont. Who knows whether that trend will last through the summer. But I'd bet on at least some brutal heat in the coming months. 

As We Deal With A Spring Snowstorm In Vermont/New England, Heat Blasts On Much Of Planet

 Sure, winter has just given us (hopefully!) a last big blast here in Vermont. 

A tropical feel to the atmosphere on Burlington, Vermont's
waterfront during a record heat wave in July, 2018.
We're far from any heat records here in Vermont this
week, but many all time heat records have been
broken in the past couple weeks in
many parts of the world. 

Meanwhile, much of the rest of the world is hot, hot, hot. March closed with all time monthly highs in large parts of Europe, Asia and central America, just to name a few hot spots. 

Most of the following information comes from weather historian and climatologist Maximiliano Herrera, who runs the Extreme Temperatures Around the World (@extremetemps) on X, formerly Twitter. 

Eight eastern European nations logged records for their hottest March day on record, says the Washington Post. Numerous cities in Russia, Ukraine, Greece and Turkey also set record highs. 

Tokyo and other parts of Japan was actually kind of on the cool side during March, but that all changed at the end of the month. Tokyo got up to 82.6 degrees, easily its hottest March day on record. several other cities in Japan also had all time record highs for the month. 

In the last week of March, Hong Kong also had its hottest March day on the 24th with a reading of 88.7 degrees.  On March 27, Phuket, Thailand reached 102.6 degrees, its hottest temperatures record in any month.  

Cities in Taiwan, southern China, Myanmar and the Philippines also broke heat records by large margins in late March. Record highs have been reported somewhere in Thailand every day so far this year. 

Parts of Mongolia also reported record high temperatures for March. This follows an intense spell of frigid temperatures and snow in February that killed millions of livestock. 

April seems to be picking up where March left off, with heat records falling in a whole bunch of disparate places around the world - except here in Vermont, apparently. 

Kayes, in the western African nation of Mali, reached a terrible 119 degrees on Wednesday. That was the hottest temperature on record for any date for the entire nation of Mali. It was also the hottest April day on the entire African continent. It was also the hottest temperatures on record anywhere on Earth for early April. 

Central America also got into the act as April opened. 

On Tuesday, Guatemala reached 95 degrees for a new national record for the month of April. Costa Rica also hit an April record with 104 degrees. Not to be outdone, Belize City reached 100 degrees, its hottest day on record for any time of year. 

This is only some of the hot records noted around the world in recent days. And more record heat is due over the next week in several other parts of the world. 

But not here in Vermont. 

Sure, it will warm up to seasonable temperatures for April by Monday. But no record heat is in the cards for at least two weeks, probably longer. 

However, with all the heat waves hitting in rapid succession around the world, it's only a matter of time before Vermont starts breaking record highs again, like we did in February and early March.  

Let's just hope they're all time record highs in the middle of summer. 

I can't blame the heat waves 100 percent o climate change, but it's certainly having an influence. is