Dangerous heat bursts have been spiking temperatures across the US as people sleep. So what are they?
An intense burst of heat hit southwestern Oklahoma on Sunday, sending temperatures spiking into the high 90s.
In the city of Chickasha, which is located approximately 40 minutes from Oklahoma City, the weather event occurred in the early morning hours.
'Several hit southwest Oklahoma this morning. An intense burst of extreme heat hit Chickasha, Oklahoma at 5:15 a.m. Sunday morning, bringing the temperature to 95.6 degrees!' meteorologist and atmospheric scientist Matthew Cappucci wrote on the social media platform X.
But, what are heat bursts and how do they form? Here's what you should know.
What are heat bursts?
Heat bursts are localized and sudden increases of temperature that are associated with a thunderstorm.
The relatively rare atmospheric nighttime events are often accompanied by 'extreme drying,' according to the American Meteorological Society Glossary of Meteorology.
They're also characterized by gusty winds.
'Chickasaw went from 77 degrees and 80 percent relative humidity to 95.6 degrees and just 17 PERCENT humidity!' Cappucci noted. 'Chickasaw also gusted to 59 mph! Medicine Park, Oklahoma warmed to 81.2 degrees and gusted to 69 mph. Altus got to 89 degrees shortly after 2 a.m.'
How do they form?
Heat bursts need a dissipating thunderstorm or shower and a hot and dry midlevel atmospheric environment to form, according to National Weather Service forecasters. The midlevel atmosphere is around 20,000 feet above the Earth's surface.
Thunderstorms develop when moist and unstable air is pushed upward, and rain then falls from the storm. When the storm loses that upward moving current of air, it is dominated by a downward moving current of air.
Along with the combination of a hot and dry midlevel atmospheric environment, the downward current's moisture evaporates and cools the midlevel atmospheric layer, increasing its rate of descent toward the ground. The descending air will stop cooling when all the moisture has evaporated, warming the midlevel layer.
The heat burst occurs when the warm and dry air descends to the surface.
'As air sinks, it warms up (and dries out). And if you have an air pocket coming from high enough, it warms up a LOT by the time it reaches the surface. It also brings strong dry winds – like a desert hurricane,' Cappucci noted.
When and where do they happen?
Heat bursts typically occur in the spring and summer, when thunderstorm activity is associated with daytime heating.
While thunderstorms dissipate during the evening as they lose their main source of energy, heat bursts occur in the evening or overnight hours.
They can occur in many regions, but are most common in the Midwest and Plains states. However, they have previously occurred outside of that range. A significant weather event in 2012 brought one to Georgetown County, South Carolina. They've also struck the Southwest.
What are the associated dangers?
Climate change is making heat events more frequent and severe.
The rapid increase in surface temperatures - sometimes occurring in less than an hour and leading to a triple-digit high - can take residents by surprise. So can the associated winds, have been known to exceed 70 or 80 mph. They can rip the roofs off buildings and damage trees.
In Chickasha, they knocked out the power for more than 2,000 residents in Grady and Caddo counties, according KOCO 5.
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NBC News
35 minutes ago
- NBC News
Tired in Tornado Alley
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On Tuesday, eight tornadoes roared through the region, downing trees, derailing rail cars and snapping utility poles. Like National Weather Service offices across the country, the Quad Cities office is dealing with deep cuts after the Trump administration laid off probationary workers. And while the Trump administration has claimed everything is OK — while also saying it will be refilling more than 100 NWS roles across the country — even some Republican members of Congress are sounding the alarm. 'We're fixing it,' said Rep. Mike Flood, R-Neb., who introduced bipartisan legislation Friday that would classify NWS employees as critical public safety workers and protect them from future cost-saving federal cuts. 'We're going to make them public safety. We're going to fund them.' Last week, before the administration acknowledged it planned to hire new staffers, NBC News joined a congressional tour — at the invitation of Rep. Eric Sorensen, D-Ill., Congress' only meteorologist and a critic of the administration — to see the effects of the Trump administration's cuts at the Quad Cities forecasting office for Iowa and Illinois. We found a dedicated but short-staffed office scraping by as best it could and politely avoiding a few of the most pointed questions. Were there plans to hire a new hydrologist? What would ideal staffing levels be? 'I'll have to refer you to public affairs,' Friedlein said. Ray Wolf, who retired from the Davenport office in 2023 but has kept in touch with his former colleagues, said that they were 'hanging in there' but that the nationwide cuts had left the system vulnerable to a failure. 'How long can they keep on before something invariably breaks down?' he said. 'If you keep stressing a system beyond its limits? Eventually, there's going to be an issue somewhere that's going to show up.' The National Weather Service is down about 560 employees since the Trump administration laid off workers and offered buyouts and early retirements to others, according to Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash, who held a news conference Wednesday opposing the cuts. At least eight offices have stopped operating 24 hours a day. At least 10 of 122 NWS forecasting offices this year have halted or suspended the release of weather balloons that provide data to predict the weather; they simply didn't have the staff to manage. Real-time weather data collected and analyzed by the National Weather Service and its parent agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) — from balloons, radar, maritime buoys and satellites — forms the basis of almost all public and private weather forecasting. Meteorologists at forecasting offices are responsible for analyzing the modeling data and sending alerts to the public. 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At a House Appropriations Committee hearing Thursday, Lutnick suggested that some regional centers within the National Weather Service could be consolidated and that more balloon launches could be automated. Now, members of Congress on both sides of the aisle are pushing for change as tornadoes tear across the Midwest, hurricane season ramps up and the peak of wildfire season out west nears. Sorensen, who worked for 22 years as a TV meteorologist, has signed on to co-sponsor Flood's bill, along with Reps. Frank Lucas, R-Okla., Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., and Jimmy Panetta, D-Calif. Sorensen said he's concerned a mistake by a worn-down meteorologist will lead to unnecessary deaths. He compared the situation to a used car — once trusty and now headed for a lapse. 'It's not running the way that it was supposed to,' Sorensen said of the service. 'Meteorologists, we're human, you know. We will make mistakes, and I don't want to ever see us in a situation where funding or a lack of funding has now caused there to be a loss of life.' Some help is on the way. The administration recently approved the agency's hiring 126 new staffers, including meteorologists, hydrologists, physical scientists and electronics technicians, a measure CNN first reported Monday. 'A targeted number of permanent, mission-critical field positions will soon be advertised under an exception to the Department-wide hiring freeze to further stabilize frontline operations,' Erica Grow Cei, a meteorologist and spokesperson for the National Weather Service, said in a statement. The National Weather Service has also opened a period of reassignment for current staffers to relocate and fill more than 150 critical positions. 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Evan Bush Evan Bush is a science reporter for NBC News. Chase Cain Chase Cain is a meteorologist for NBC News.
The Guardian
3 hours ago
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BBC News
4 hours ago
- BBC News
Events cancelled as Met Office issues thunderstorm warning
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