This beginning of the week promises to be particularly hot: up to 38°C in Toulouse and Lyon, even 40°C towards Perpignan and in the Alpes-Maritimes for Tuesday or even 37°C in Montpellier on Wednesday, the temperatures will be very high this week, details the Midi-Libre article. This Monday, July 17, the department mentioned is already on orange alert for the heat wave and could intensify over the days.
What explains this episode of heat wave? These strong heats are caused by an anticyclone called “Cerberus” by Italian meteorologists. The latter is responsible for the creation of a “heat dome”, which is currently located all around the Mediterranean, indicates Le Figaro.
“This means that the hot air is stuck in a high pressure zone which forms a kind of high temperature cover, decrypts Grégory Langlet, forecasting engineer at Agate Météo, for Le Parisien. In this dome, the heat peak will concern really the day Tuesday!”
This heat dome acts as a catalyst: “a” bell under which temperatures rise day by day. It forms with the appearance of a static anticyclone, not very mobile and ends when it starts. This bell acts as a barrier to disturbances, that is to say rain and wind”, explains Matthieu Sorel, climatologist at Météo France, to our colleagues from Geo.
“In other words, the area concerned by the heat dome remains, in a way, away from the atmospheric circulation which continues around it. The temperature increases there because it is deprived of this mixing, this ventilation Added to this is a phenomenon known as “compression”, that is to say that the air within this bell will compress towards the ground. However, when the air compresses, it heats up” , details the meteorologist.
To the question, are “heat domes” more powerful due to climate change? Matthieu Sorel answers yes. “What can be said with a relatively high degree of confidence is that heat domes tend to be more powerful due to climate change. Since the base temperature is warmer, this phenomenon will take it even higher”, he analyzes again.
