Heat Dome Threatens Nearly the Entire Country
A massive heat dome that has scorched the Southwest is slowly pushing eastward, threatening to become one of the widest-reaching heat waves in U.S. history, experts say. The extreme warmth, which shattered March temperature records in 14 states and across the country, is expected to persist at least until midweek, when April begins, according to meteorologist Gregg Gallina of the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center.
“Essentially, the entire nation is experiencing higher temperatures,” Gallina said Monday. “The scope of record-breaking heat is unusually vast—that’s what’s striking about this event.”
Heat domes occur when high pressure traps hot air over a region, and this one is already creating prolonged heat in parts of the Southwest. In Flagstaff, Arizona, temperatures are expected to exceed the city’s previous March records for nearly two weeks in a row, meteorologist Jeff Masters of Yale Climate Connections said. As the dome shifts east, southern and central Plains states could see temperatures climb into the 90s Fahrenheit by Wednesday. Gallina estimates that roughly a quarter to a third of the continental U.S. may experience near-record March heat.
Weather historian Chris Burt, author of Extreme Weather, notes that the current heat wave covers more territory than two other major U.S. events: the 2012 Upper Midwest and Northeast heat wave and the 2021 Pacific Northwest heat wave. While the scale rivals historic events, it does not reach the intensity of the Dust Bowl heat waves of 1936, which were extreme and prolonged over the summer months. Gallina pointed out that this current wave is slightly less dangerous because it occurs in March, when humidity is lower and temperatures, though record-breaking, are not as extreme as summer highs.
Last Friday, four locations in Arizona and California recorded 112 degrees Fahrenheit, breaking the record for the hottest March day in the continental United States by 4 degrees and approaching the highest April temperatures on record in the Lower 48. Climatologist Maximiliano Herrera, who tracks global weather records, confirmed that 14 states have set new March heat records since the dome arrived: California, Arizona, Nevada, Kansas, New Mexico, Nebraska, Utah, South Dakota, Missouri, Iowa, Colorado, Wyoming, Minnesota, and Idaho.
Masters said the heat dome is expected to move east and diminish by the end of next week. “We just need to let it run its course,” he said.
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