Community Corner

Hot Dome Traps Chicago Area

A meteorologist explains this week's heat wave.

If the extreme heat and humidity lingering over much of the nation feels like a steam bath, it's because the same principles are at work in the atmosphere. Vast amounts of warmth and moisture have become trapped under a huge "heat dome," bringing record-breaking temperatures and thick, topical air to scores of cities from the Plains to the Ohio Valley, according to the Huffington Post.

The heat dome forms when a high pressure system develops in the upper atmosphere, causing the air below it to sink and compress because there's more weight on top. That raises temperatures in the lower atmosphere, said Eli Jacks, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Silver Spring, Md, in the Huffington Post article.

Find out what's happening in Algonquin-Lake In The Hillswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The dome of high pressure also pushes the jet stream and its drier, cooler air, farther north – it's now well into Canada – while hot, humid air from the Gulf of Mexico circulates clockwise around the dome, traveling farther inland than normal.

Combined with generally clear skies and the sun's higher summertime angle, "it gets really hot," Jacks told the Huffington Post.

Find out what's happening in Algonquin-Lake In The Hillswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Check out the Huffington Post video Heat Wave Smothers Much of U.S.

A break in the heat wave, for the Chicago area, is expected on Monday.


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