![]() ![]() Sinking atmospheric motion associated with the upper level ridge further heats and dries the air aloft, creating an environment where clouds and afternoon thunderstorms cannot easily develop. Westerly winds blowing across the Appalachians experience compressional heating as they descend the eastern slopes of the mountains, adding to the already hot temperatures. The heat wave then begins across the Carolinas as the high moves into Georgia, often merging with the Bermuda High offshore. If this high pressure region is forced to move south, the heat will follow it down through the eastern United States. This Canadian heat is typically the result of high pressure over the Great Lakes and unusual upper level ridging over eastern Canada. ![]() Interestingly, most Carolina heat waves originate as a region of well-above normal temperatures in Ontario, Canada three or four days before reaching the Carolinas. Destructive wildfires can spread in the dry conditions during these drought/heat wave combinations. Crops and livestock can also be affected by drought, which has accompanied many of our worst heat waves. Large electrical demand for air conditioning can, in exceptional cases, lead to local or regional power disruptions. These heat waves can injure or kill people, animals, and plants exposed to the sun and hot temperatures for long periods of time. In some cases the heat was accompanied by severe drought, causing massive agricultural impacts and stress to local water supplies.Įach summer brings hot weather to the Carolinas, but occasionally a period of exceptional heat develops and lingers for days or weeks. The Carolinas have suffered through vicious heat waves throughout history, particularly during the decades of the 1950s, 1980s, and now more recently beginning in 2007. The NWS definition of a heat wave is a period of abnormally and uncomfortably hot and unusually humid weather, typically lasting two or more days. ![]()
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