Watch: Hidden weather patterns in the United States are producing a “hot dome.”
When a sustained region of high pressure traps heat over an area, this phenomenon is known as a heat dome. The heat dome can extend over a number of states and remain in place for several days or weeks, subjecting the people, crops, and animals that live below it to oppressive conditions that feel like they are being baked in an oven.
The behavior of the jet stream, which is a band of strong winds high in the sky that typically moves from west to east, is typically related to the formation of heat domes.
In a typical scenario, the jet stream will follow a wavelike pattern, first wandering north, then south, and then back up north. The larger these meanders in the jet stream develop, the slower they move, and there is a possibility that they will become immobile. When this happens, he...