How dangerously high can heat domes push temperatures?

Summer weather is often associated with severe heat waves, also known as heat domes.

Melting road surface in New Delhi, India in May 2015

A heat dome occurs when a persistent area of high pressure forms over a certain area and does not move for a week or more.

High pressure leads to nice weather with sunny skies and few clouds. It causes air to sink below. And as the air sinks, it heats up, causing the temperature to rise.

Heat domes are created because the air cannot escape. The temperature then continues to warm, often to uncomfortable or even dangerous levels.

Most high temperature records have been set in a heat dome. And the current climate crisis will make them happen more often, and even hotter.

A woman cools off at a fountain in Trafalgar Square, London, England, in July 2003.

Deadly heat waves

• Europe 2003: Among the most dangerous heat waves in European history was the summer of 2003. An estimated 30,000 people died due to the scorching heat in July and August of that year. Temperatures reached 40 degrees Celsius and did not cool down until late at night. The worst affected European country was France, with more than 14,000 deaths, mostly elderly people.

It is usually only 26 - 30 degrees Celsius at this time of year. But in the first three weeks of August 2003, the temperature in France was always around 40 degrees Celsius.

• India 2015: More than 2,000 people died within a few weeks of the summer of 2015, when temperatures soared to 47.7 degrees Celsius in some areas. In the capital New Delhi, the scorching heat even melted roads.

• Chicago (USA) in 1995: At the time the heat dome covered the American Midwest that year, over 700 people died in the poorest areas of the city of Chicago.

The highest temperature was 38 degrees Celsius, but the perceived heat was closer to 51 degrees Celsius. Many residents, mainly the elderly, could not stand it because the heat lasted until night, making it impossible for the body to recover from the heat of the day.

Climate crisis makes heat domes more dangerous

According to a 2022 study published in the journal Nature Communications Earth & Environment, the climate crisis is expected to increase the likelihood of dangerous temperature readings by 50 to 100 percent in most tropical regions and by 10 times globally.

Even a small increase in global average temperature could lead to a significant increase in extreme heat waves, observed in strong and persistent heat domes.

A 2023 study in the journal Nature Communications found that places like Afghanistan, Papua New Guinea and Central America — including Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua — were already considered “hotspots” for dangerous heat waves.

These areas are particularly vulnerable due to rapid population growth and limited access to health care and energy supplies, factors that weaken people’s resilience to extreme temperatures, the report said.

In 2023 alone, a series of high temperature records were set globally:

• In South Texas, the temperature in the city of Del Rio hit 46 degrees Celsius on June 22. This unprecedented high broke the record set two days earlier of 45 degrees Celsius.

• China's Shanghai city recorded its highest May temperature in more than 100 years on May 29.

• In Tuong Duong district of Vietnam, the temperature on May 6 reached about 44.2 degrees Celsius. This is the highest temperature ever recorded in Vietnam. On the same day, Thailand also witnessed the hottest temperature ever recorded in Bangkok: 41 degrees Celsius.

• Siberia set dozens of records in June as temperatures soared to 38 degrees Celsius beneath a heat dome forming in the north.

Heat waves not only pose a health risk, but also contribute to severe droughts and wildfires. Human-caused climate change has exacerbated the hot, dry conditions that allow wildfires to break out and grow.

In recent years, the fires have become more severe, sending smoke drifting hundreds of kilometers, degrading air quality.

(According to baotintuc.vn)

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