{"id":32844,"date":"2025-06-30T07:03:11","date_gmt":"2025-06-30T07:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=32844"},"modified":"2025-06-30T07:03:11","modified_gmt":"2025-06-30T07:03:11","slug":"dual-heat-domes-hit-europe-and-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=32844","title":{"rendered":"Dual heat domes hit Europe and US"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> \n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Stay informed with free updates<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__content-sign-up-topic-description o3-type-body-base\"><span>Simply sign up to the <!-- -->Visual and data journalism<!-- --> myFT Digest &#8212; delivered directly to your inbox.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe class=\"article__content-sign-up-iframe close\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"signUpIframe\" data-prev-url=\"\/register\/in-article-sign-up?ft-content-uuid=3f62b404-9550-42ca-b3ef-cb7c4626b8f4&amp;concept-id=a39873a9-37fd-4501-b9e1-d98da1677e99\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<p><em>This article is an on-site version of our Climate Graphic: Explained newsletter. <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/newsletters\" data-trackable=\"link\"><em>Sign up here <\/em><\/a><em>to receive it in your inbox each Sunday.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/51893d2c-7c0b-4d5e-8942-560c35fd3673?emailId=0d0c1569-7ca3-48ce-b564-69312ecbc740&amp;segmentId=ccee9840-6c9b-2776-04de-b87d446b96a1\" data-trackable=\"link\">Tens of millions of people in Europe and the US<\/a> suffered extreme temperatures this month as two simultaneous \u201cheat\u201d domes positioned themselves over each continent.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDual heat domes\u201d were likely to \u201cbecome more common as we continue to heat the planet\u201d, said Michael Mann, professor at the Department of Earth and Environmental Science\u00a0at the University of Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"n-content-image n-content-image--full\" data-component=\"image-set\"><picture><source media=\"(max-width: 490px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/__origami\/service\/image\/v2\/images\/raw\/ftcms%3A416e5f52-b2c2-460a-ac72-0da5cd8e0537?source=next-article&amp;fit=scale-down&amp;quality=highest&amp;width=490&amp;dpr=1 1x\" width=\"500\" height=\"500\"\/><\/picture><\/figure>\n<p>Heat domes occur when there is a ridge of high pressure in combination with a weakened jet stream, which generally occurs during the summer months.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe position and strength of the jet stream can lead to blocking situations, such as an omega block where high pressure ends up sandwiched between two low pressure systems, forming a shape like the Greek letter \u03a9,\u201d according to the Royal Meteorological Society.<\/p>\n<p>This blocking pattern means the heat dome can remain static for long periods of time.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"n-content-image n-content-image--full\" data-component=\"image-set\"><picture><source media=\"(min-width: 700px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/__origami\/service\/image\/v2\/images\/raw\/ftcms%3A0ba3a6ef-6ec5-4c3e-b38f-b7b9c61c2e23?source=next-article&amp;fit=scale-down&amp;quality=highest&amp;width=700&amp;dpr=1 1x,https:\/\/www.ft.com\/__origami\/service\/image\/v2\/images\/raw\/ftcms%3A0ba3a6ef-6ec5-4c3e-b38f-b7b9c61c2e23?source=next-article&amp;fit=scale-down&amp;quality=highest&amp;width=700&amp;dpr=2 2x\" width=\"1458\" height=\"1500\"\/><source media=\"(max-width: 490px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/__origami\/service\/image\/v2\/images\/raw\/ftcms%3A4d8b83eb-323a-423c-8d97-c9747bc128e7?source=next-article&amp;fit=scale-down&amp;quality=highest&amp;width=490&amp;dpr=1 1x\" width=\"625\" height=\"1667\"\/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/__origami\/service\/image\/v2\/images\/raw\/https%3A%2F%2Fd6c748xw2pzm8.cloudfront.net%2Fprod%2F6c1baff0-2743-11ee-ae33-51645fc43d01-standard.png?source=next-article&amp;fit=scale-down&amp;quality=highest&amp;width=700&amp;dpr=1\" alt=\"Graphic explaining how a heat dome works. Warm Pacific air gets trapped in the jet stream, forming an \u2018omega block\u2019 loop. Warm air expands upwards. High pressure forms a dome that prevents warm air from escaping. High pressure forces warm air back to the ground. Warm air compresses as it sinks, releasing more heat. Heat causes the ground to lose moisture, creating further warming and increasing the likelihood of wildfires\" data-image-type=\"graphic\" width=\"1458\" height=\"1500\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/picture><\/figure>\n<p>To illustrate the heat dome over the US, the first port of call was National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nco.ncep.noaa.gov\/pmb\/products\/gfs\/\" data-trackable=\"link\">global forecasting system<\/a>. It has plethora of data \u2014 more than 700 atmospheric variables \u2014 forecasting up to 16 days.<\/p>\n<p>The one downside to this vast array of data is that the files are huge! Each one weighs in at 520MB and downloading 210 files requires a very fast connection and plenty of space on your hard drive.<\/p>\n<p>Once all the files have downloaded (it helps to have a spare computer), they are taken into R, the statistical programming software and the 2-metre air temperature band is extracted from the netCDF (the climate scientist-preferred file format) using a few lines of code.<\/p>\n<p>The files are then loaded into Qgis, the FT\u2019s geographic information system software of choice and styled with an appropriate colour ramp \u2014 shamelessly borrowed from the esteemed Joshua Steven, former lead data visualiser\/cartographer at Nasa\u2019s Earth Observatory, with minor tweaks.<\/p>\n<p>Exporting the 210 layers for the animation can be tedious manually, so I used Python code in the Qgis console to save each layer in our project as a separate PNG image. Marco Hernandez, a graphics editor at the New York Times, has <a href=\"https:\/\/mhinfographics.com\/2023\/01\/06\/tutorial-visualizing-global-temperature-step-by-step\/\" data-trackable=\"link\">written a great tutorial<\/a> on how to do this. These files are then pulled into Adobe after effects software to create the animation.<\/p>\n<div class=\"n-content-layout\" data-component=\"flourish\" data-component-id=\"23942871\" data-component-type=\"flourish-in-article\">\n<figure class=\"n-content-picture n-content-layout__container\"><a href=\"#23942871\"><picture data-asset-type=\"flourish\" data-flourish-id=\"23942871\" data-flourish-type=\"visualisation\">\n<div id=\"23942871\" class=\"cp-message o-message o-message--inform o-message--notice\" data-o-component=\"o-message\">\n<div class=\"o-message__container\">\n<div class=\"o-message__content\">\n<p class=\"o-message__content-main\">Some content could not load. Check your internet connection or browser settings.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/__origami\/service\/image\/v2\/images\/raw\/https%3A%2F%2Fpublic.flourish.studio%2Fvisualisation%2F23942871%2Fthumbnail%3FcacheBuster%3D972926?source=cp-content-pipeline&amp;fit=scale-down&amp;quality=highest&amp;width=2626&amp;dpr=1\" alt=\"\"\/><\/picture><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>For the second chart, I wanted to show how many Americans had been affected by the heatwave at its peak on Wednesday. To do this, R can be used again to calculate the maximum temperature during the day from the hourly temperature files.<\/p>\n[Nerd note: To create the temperature bands I used the Qgis built in raster (pixel grid) calculator to output simple files based on the 2C range of each band. The resulting files are simple black and white rasters where black means the condition has been met, white where it hasn\u2019t. These rasters are then converted into vector polygons and used as a mask layer to query a population count layer for the US downloaded from <a href=\"https:\/\/hub.worldpop.org\/project\/categories?id=3\" data-trackable=\"link\">WorldPop<\/a>. This is done using the \u2018zonal statistics\u2019 function in Qgis which provides you with a total count for the area.]\n<figure class=\"n-content-image n-content-image--full\" data-component=\"image-set\"><picture><source media=\"(max-width: 490px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/__origami\/service\/image\/v2\/images\/raw\/ftcms%3A3f18712a-bb65-4d27-91db-4b51cae52445?source=next-article&amp;fit=scale-down&amp;quality=highest&amp;width=490&amp;dpr=1 1x\" width=\"700\" height=\"500\"\/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/__origami\/service\/image\/v2\/images\/raw\/https%3A%2F%2Fd6c748xw2pzm8.cloudfront.net%2Fprod%2Fb8aefae0-5336-11f0-817d-eb3351bc6117-mobile.png?source=next-article&amp;fit=scale-down&amp;quality=highest&amp;width=700&amp;dpr=1\" alt=\"Animation showing how population by temperature band is calculated \" data-image-type=\"graphic\" width=\"700\" height=\"500\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/picture><\/figure>\n<p>I inputted the values for each temperature band into a spreadsheet and brought this into Flourish software, colour coding each bar so it matches the colour ramp used on the map.<\/p>\n<p>Using two different approaches with the same data helps to give a more complete picture \u2014 using a map to show where people were affected and the chart to show how many.<\/p>\n<p>Research by Mann and colleagues, published in the journal <em>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences<\/em>, found the amplification of waves in the jet stream \u2014 the fast-moving band of air encircling the planet \u2014 led to a dramatic increase in atmospheric events, driving heatwaves, wildfires and floods.<\/p>\n<p>The study found that there was roughly a tripling from approximately one event per year to about three events a year when calculated over the past 70 years.<\/p>\n<div class=\"n-content-layout\" data-layout-name=\"card\" data-layout-width=\"full-width\">\n<div class=\"n-content-layout__container\">\n<h3 id=\"climate-capital\" class=\"n-content-heading-3 o3-editorial-typography-subheading\">Climate Capital<\/h3>\n<div class=\"n-content-layout__slot\">\n<figure class=\"n-content-image n-content-image--full\" data-component=\"image-set\"><picture><source media=\"(min-width: 700px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/__origami\/service\/image\/v2\/images\/raw\/ftcms%3A384cfd92-a50b-4bce-9d00-ffdbff93b8ec?source=next-article&amp;fit=scale-down&amp;quality=highest&amp;width=700&amp;dpr=1 1x,https:\/\/www.ft.com\/__origami\/service\/image\/v2\/images\/raw\/ftcms%3A384cfd92-a50b-4bce-9d00-ffdbff93b8ec?source=next-article&amp;fit=scale-down&amp;quality=highest&amp;width=700&amp;dpr=2 2x\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1152\"\/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/__origami\/service\/image\/v2\/images\/raw\/https%3A%2F%2Fd1e00ek4ebabms.cloudfront.net%2Fproduction%2F384cfd92-a50b-4bce-9d00-ffdbff93b8ec.jpg?source=next-article&amp;fit=scale-down&amp;quality=highest&amp;width=700&amp;dpr=1\" alt=\"\" data-image-type=\"image\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1152\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/picture><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"n-content-layout__slot\">\n<p>Where climate change meets business, markets and politics.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/climate-capital\" data-trackable=\"link\">Explore the FT\u2019s coverage here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Are you curious about the FT\u2019s environmental sustainability commitments?\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/aboutus.ft.com\/company\/sustainability\" data-trackable=\"link\">Find out more about our science-based targets here<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/3f62b404-9550-42ca-b3ef-cb7c4626b8f4\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the Visual and data journalism myFT Digest &#8212; 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