Heat Dome

NASA

Heat Dome Broils the Western U.S.

It’s still relatively early in the summer season in the Northern Hemisphere, but several parts of North America were sweltering in mid-July. The latest purveyor of heat was a strong ridge of high pressure that lingered in the upper atmosphere over the northern Rockies on the weekend of July 11-12, 2026. This pushed hot air toward the surface and trapped it there—a weather phenomenon meteorologists call…