Another heat wave is on the horizon, and it's not just any heat wave; it's a dangerous, record-breaking, and long-lasting heat wave that will affect millions of people across the United States. This heat wave is not just a blip on the radar; it's a significant and dangerous event that will last for at least a week, with some areas feeling its effects until the end of the month. What makes this heat wave particularly fascinating is how it will trap hot air like a pot lid, blocking cooling winds and rain, and how it will affect both human health and efforts to tamp down an already active wildfire season. In my opinion, this heat wave is a stark reminder of the impact of climate change and the urgent need for action. The heat wave will start this weekend and last at least a week, with some areas feeling its effects until the end of the month. Temperatures will be 15 to 25 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than normal in many areas, including at night. Nights can be just as dangerous as days, and if you don't get heat relief at night, it can become extremely dangerous. This heat wave will be bigger, longer-lasting, and stronger than most, and it will affect any place in the United States that escaped the earlier July heat waves. What makes this heat wave so different is how big a warm shadow it will cast and how long it will persist. A dome of high pressure will trap hot air, threatening records, and it will initially park over the Northern Plains but will be so big that it will trap sweltering temperatures across as much as two-thirds of the continental United States. While it will initially miss the East Coast, the heat dome will shift and wobble, maybe even spreading from coast-to-coast over the next 10 days or more. Forecasters are expecting record triple-digit highs this weekend in Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota. The weather service is predicting more than 90 U.S. local temperature records will be tied or broken through Wednesday, with two-thirds being overnight heat records that can hinder how the human body recovers from broiling days. This heat wave will add to wildfire risk, already bad because of the drought, and it will worsen the drought conditions and stoke more heat in a vicious cycle. The El Niño that recently formed is too young to have a pronounced impact on this heat wave, but climate change from the burning of coal, oil, and natural gas clearly does. We know that heat waves are becoming more intense, they're lasting longer, and they're covering larger areas than they used to because of human-caused climate change. And so when we see an event like this, we know there is at least a partial contribution by the long-term warming trend. Using attribution science, we know that those temperatures would be virtually impossible without the influence of climate change. This heat wave is a stark reminder of the impact of climate change and the urgent need for action. It's a call to arms for all of us to take action to reduce our carbon footprint and mitigate the effects of climate change. Personally, I think that this heat wave is a wake-up call for the world to take climate change seriously and to take action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. We can't afford to wait any longer to address this crisis, and I believe that this heat wave is a powerful reminder of the need for urgent action.
