![]() Though the current ridge is occurring earlier and is centered farther north, it is still “a huge blob of essentially unprecedented atmospheric high pressure and temperatures for this time of year,” Swain says. The current meteorologic setup is very similar to the one that caused the infamous 2021 heat dome over this area, says Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the National Center for Atmospheric Research. “Each day it’s there, it strengthens,” which will cause temperatures to rise over the weekend to an expected peak on Sunday or Monday, says Kayla Mazurkiewicz, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s (NWS’s) Seattle office. The cloudless skies that come with high-pressure systems also let the sun beat down and warm the surface. In the Pacific Northwest, the latest unseasonably high temperatures are coming courtesy of a high-pressure system, or ridge, that is moving through the atmosphere over the region and pulling in warm air from the south. The new heat wave is also yet another reminder that summers are getting progressively hotter and arriving earlier as humans continue to release planet-warming emissions into the atmosphere. There are also concerns that the hot, dry conditions could fuel the wildfires already raging in western Canada’s province of Alberta, causing air quality problems and sending smoke all the way to the U.S. But it still raises public health concerns in an area that is known for its cool, gentle summers-and whose people are not acclimatized to serious heat this early in the season, if ever. ![]() This event won’t reach the heights of the punishing heat dome that obliterated records in the region in June 2021 and contributed to hundreds of deaths. ![]() Starting this weekend, the heat wave will send temperatures soaring 20 to 25 degrees Fahrenheit above average in some spots and potentially break records. It may still be spring, but baking summer heat is about to hit the famously comfortable Pacific Northwest and western Canada. ![]()
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