The setup for the coming heatwave will be different from what unfolded in the Pacific Northwest and western Canada from June 29 to July 2. A heatwave occurs when a system of high atmospheric pressure moves into an area and hunkers down for several days.
In the last heatwave, the high pressure was centered over Oregon and Washington state, an unusual scenario that triggered anomalously high temperatures in a region where most homes and businesses don’t have air conditioning systems.
With this next one, the dome of pressure is expected to be over the Four Corners region. The heat is forecast to bleed across the West Coast, pushing all the way up into Washington state. Still, it is expected to center around Las Vegas, Arizona, southern Utah, Southern California, and Idaho. This is a more typical scenario that occurs in summer, and it resembles the mid-June heat event that was also centered in the Southwest and impacted California
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