US weather forecast: NWS warns of ‘significant and dangerous’ heat as forecasters predict it will start over the weekend | Today’s news

A vast and unusually intense heat dome is set to cover most of the contiguous United States, driving temperatures to dangerous levels in what the National Weather Service (NWS) described as “significant and dangerous” heat.

Forecasters said the heatwave would begin at the weekend and last for at least a week, with some regions expected to persist in above-normal temperatures until the end of the month. Daytime and nighttime temperatures are forecast to be 15 to 25 degrees Fahrenheit (8 to 14 degrees Celsius) above seasonal averages in many areas. The increased nighttime temperatures are expected to increase health risks and make it more difficult to manage the country’s already active wildfire season.

Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources, “This coming heat wave looks pretty remarkable. It’s going to be a long-lasting, widespread, high-intensity heat event that will affect millions of people for more than a week.”

A vast high-pressure system, often referred to as a heat dome, is expected to settle over the Northern Plains, trapping hot air like a lid on a pot while blocking cooling winds and rain. But meteorologists told The Associated Press that the system will be so expansive that it could push sweltering temperatures across nearly two-thirds of the continental United States.

Although the East Coast is expected to avoid the worst of the heat initially, forecasters said the heat dome is likely to shift and fluctuate in the coming days, potentially extending from coast to coast for more than 10 days.

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Forecasters are expecting record triple-digit highs this weekend in Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota.

The weather service predicts that more than 90 local U.S. temperature records will be tied or broken on Wednesday, with two-thirds being overnight temperature records that can hinder how the human body recovers from grilling days.

“Nights can be just as dangerous as days. If you don’t get thermal relief at night, it carries over into your daytime experience and becomes extremely dangerous,” said meteorologist Bob Henson of Yale Climate Connections. “Heat is not to be trifled with. It’s just as dangerous as a tornado or a hurricane, it can kill you just as easily, just silently and in a different way.”

Swain said what makes this heat wave so different is how big a warm shadow it will cast and how long it will last.

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In the past few weeks, major heat waves have caused widespread suffering in Europe, the US East Coast, and most recently the US Southeast. Now, every place in the United States that escaped earlier July heat waves will get this one, Swain said.

Rain is likely to sneak in under the southern edge of the heat dome and wreak havoc on the U.S. Southeast during the day, creating something special, Climate Central meteorologist Shel Winkley said. Because of the added moisture and humidity, the Southeast could get record overnight heat but below normal daytime heat, he said.

The National Weather Service is predicting record-breaking overnight heat for Saturday in places from Texas to Florida to North Carolina. In Fort Lauderdale, Florida, temperatures won’t drop below 80 degrees (27 degrees Celsius) at night; Miami; Tampa, Florida; Galveston, Texas; and Charleston, South Carolina, according to the forecast.

While heat domes aren’t uncommon in the summer, Winkley said this one stands out because of how strong it is, likely setting records for the amount of high pressure it will contain. It’s especially unusual for it to be this far north, he said.

It’s likely to last this long because drought-stricken areas have less soil and air moisture that would normally slow air warming, Swain said. The drier and warmer air then worsens the drought conditions and brings more heat into the vicious cycle, he said.

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That will increase the fire risk, which is already bad because of the drought, he said.

“Manmade Climate Change”

El Nino, which recently formed, is too young to have had a significant impact on this heat wave, but climate change from burning coal, oil and natural gas clearly did, three meteorologists said.

“We know that heat waves are becoming more intense, lasting longer, covering larger areas than they used to because of human-caused climate change,” Swain said. “And so when we see an event like this, we know that the long-term warming trend is at least partially contributing to it.”

The Climate Central Climate Shift Index uses 20 computer models to compare forecast temperatures with conditions that would likely exist in a world without human-induced greenhouse gas warming. A 20,000-square-mile (52,000-square-kilometer) stretch of the U.S. stretching from southern California to northern Minnesota, home to about 24 million people, is expected to experience the index’s highest heat category this weekend, according to the analysis.

This means that extreme temperatures are at least five times more likely due to climate change. The organization reported similar findings during a heat wave on the East Coast over the July 4 weekend and a recent period of extreme heat in the southeastern United States.

“We know through attributional science that these temperatures would be virtually impossible without the influence of climate change,” Winkley said.