Geoff: Texas is entering its
third week of a record-breaking
heat wave.
The heat index could top 120
degrees.
And the sweltering weather is
not limited to Texas.
At least 45 million Americans
across the southern U.S. Were
under heat advisories over the
weekend and into today.
For a closer look, we're joined
by Jeff berardelli, chief
meteorologist and climate
specialist for wfla-tv in Tampa,
Florida.
Thanks for being with us.
This brutal heat wave is
entering week three.
What is driving it?
Jeff: Well, we have a very weird
jet stream across the northern
hemisphere and especially right
across North America.
Things have been stuck for
weeks.
This heat don't has been stuck
across especially Mexico, and
also Texas has been on its
northern end.
And because of that we're seeing
what is an extreme heatwave, one
of the worst heat waves ever in
Mexico and a very bad one also
in the southern part of Texas
especially that's going to be
spreading to the north.
Geoff: There is heat and we've
also seen tornadoes and other
sorts of extreme weather across
the south.
Is all of that connected?
Jeff: Yeah, when we have these
heat domes, we call them rings
of fire because on the north
side of these rings of fire, we
have the energy the contrast
between really hot and just
warm, and at the same time
stronger winds to the upper
atmosphere that tend to generate
these big thunderstorms.
And then they follow that ring
of fire and they can produce
tornadoes and also very, very
strong squall lines that have
extremely strong gusty wind as
well.
Geoff: Help us understand the
ways in which this heatwave is
connected to climate change.
Jeff: Well, every heatwave
basically is connected nowadays
to climate change.
Remember that the climate has
warmed around two degrees
fahrenheit since around 1900.
Now that is when you consider
both the land temperatures and
the surface of the water.
But land itself has increased by
about double the average of your
-- of the Earth's increase.
In Texas specifically, we've
seen an increase of around three
to five degrees during the
summertime.
So the baseline of these heat
waves starts a lot higher, it's
a lot easier to achieve heat
waves nowadays.
Also heat domes aggregate heat
really, really well.
So we tend to emphasize the
extremes even more than the
averages.
So the averages go up by a
couple to a few degrees.
The extremes go up by several
degrees.
In addition to the intensity of
these heat waves, we're also
seeing them last longer and
occur more frequently.
The connection between climate
change and heat waves is a
direct a to B connection.
There's a lot of evidence for
it.
In fact, climate central is
doing rapid attribution on these
type of events.
And says that this particular
event in Texas is at least five
times more likely because of
climate change.
And what's happened in Mexico
may be very well the worst
heatwave we've seen in modern
history because it's been going
on for so long, not just
intensity.
Geoff: This persistent heat
becomes dangerous and even
deadly into the July 4 holiday
week.
How should people prepare?
Jeff: They have to take us --
spend less time outside.
They should drink water.
It has been confined meanly to
Texas and Mexico but it will
expand to the Mississippi valley
and even Florida and we will see
temperatures affect a lot of
people.
100 degree temperatures will
probably impact about 25 million
people in the coming week and 90
degree temperatures or greater
will impact about 100 million
people.
You at the humidity from the
gulf of Mexico, because a lot of
the heat be along the gulf
coast, and you're talking about
the heat index, feels like 115
to 120 in spots, which can be
very dangerous.
Geoff: When can people expect
relief?
Jeff: It will be a little while.
The worst of the heatwave is not
done yet.
We're expecting the worst of it
to be the middle to the end of
this week.
It is going to let up a little
bit as we had into the weekend,
but even over the weekend, we're
still going to see some record
highs and worst is going to be
probably Wednesday, Thursday
into Friday.
So it's gonna take a while for
this to go away.
But the bottom line is in a warm
Ed climate because of climate
change we're going to see more
, of these heat waves in the
future.
They're going to be more intense
and they're going to last for a
longer period of time.
Geoff: Jeff, thank you for being
with us.
Jeff: You're welcome.
♪♪