A prolonged and deadly heatwave that has killed at least 48 people in Mexico is headed for the US.
Temperatures could reach up to 111 degrees Fahrenheit (43C) in Florida, Texas and parts of Nevada, where an intense zone of high pressure, known as a heat dome, will fuel high temperatures over the next 10 days, meteorologists have warned.
The National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center issued a warning that much of the Southwest will be impacted by the heat dome between June 5 and 11, with southern parts of both Texas and Florida already experiencing high temperatures.
The heat index, a measure of how hot it feels factoring in humidity, reached at least 115 degrees (46C) on Memorial Day at Houston Hobby Airport, demolishing the previous May record of 108 degrees (42C) from 1998.
The heat dome brought a similar heat index to the Florida Keys and south Florida ten days ago, with the index topping 105 degrees (40C). Following the brutal weather, meteorologists have predicted that Florida could see some relief from the heat dome because of a dip in the jet stream over the eastern United States in the coming days.
A heat dome occurs when hot ocean air becomes trapped in the atmosphere – much like placing a lid on a boiling pot.
The hot air expands across the atmosphere and creates a dome-like structure that prevents cooler air from circulating, blocks cloud coverage and rain and can increase the chance of wildfires.
“Basically we just get the sun pouring down sunshine unimpeded, baking the ground, and no real cloud cover or moisture to stave off our temperatures,” Gabriel A Vecchi, professor of Geosciences at Princeton University, told TIME.
The heat dome has already been breaking records in Mexico since early May, with many states in the country observing their highest temperatures on record.
Temperatures hit 94.5 degrees (34C) in Mexico City on Friday and Saturday – its highest temperature in 50 years of data keeping, according to the country’s National Meteorological Service. Meanwhile, temperatures soared to 118.4 degrees (48C) in Valle Nacional over the weekend, marking Oaxaca state’s hottest day.
Amid the heatwave, more than 80 per cent of the country is also enduring drought, with at least four dozen people dying from heat stroke and dehydration in Mexico over the past two months. The heat has also killed around 150 howler monkeys, which have been seen dropping dead from trees amid the high temperatures.
And there is little sign of the heat dome over Mexico dissipating, with researchers at the National Autonomous University of Mexico warning last week that the country “will experience the highest temperatures ever recorded” into early June.
The heat dome in Mexico has been partly fueled by the most recent El Nino weather phenomenon, a climate pattern that describes the unusual warming of surface waters in the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean.
