Causes of the Record-Breaking Pacific Northwest Heatwave, Late June 2021

The extreme heat event that hit the Pacific Northwest (Oregon, Washington, southern British Columbia) at the end of June 2021 was 3 °C greater than the previous Seattle record of 39 °C; larger extremes of 49 °C were observed further inland that were 6 °C above previous record. There were hundreds of...

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Autor principal:	James E. Overland
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	MDPI AG 2021
Materias:	heatwave polar vortex extreme events pacific northwest Meteorology. Climatology QC851-999
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/d4d06ad2dcd14b31a85b1c90bed956a9
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:d4d06ad2dcd14b31a85b1c90bed956a92021-11-25T16:44:44ZCauses of the Record-Breaking Pacific Northwest Heatwave, Late June 202110.3390/atmos121114342073-4433https://doaj.org/article/d4d06ad2dcd14b31a85b1c90bed956a92021-10-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.mdpi.com/2073-4433/12/11/1434https://doaj.org/toc/2073-4433The extreme heat event that hit the Pacific Northwest (Oregon, Washington, southern British Columbia) at the end of June 2021 was 3 °C greater than the previous Seattle record of 39 °C; larger extremes of 49 °C were observed further inland that were 6 °C above previous record. There were hundreds of deaths over the region and loss of marine life and forests. At the large scale prior to the event, the polar vortex was split over the Arctic. A polar vortex instability center formed over the Bering Sea and then extended southward along the west coast of North America. The associated tropospheric trough (low geopotential heights) established a multi-day synoptic scale Omega Block (west-east oriented low/high/low geopotential heights) centered over the Pacific Northwest. Warming was sustained in the region due to subsidence/adiabatic heating and solar radiation, which were the main reasons for such large temperature extremes. The seasonal transition at the end of spring suggests the possibility of a southern excursion of a polar vortex/jet stream pair. Both the Pacific Northwest event in 2021 and the Siberian heatwave climax in June 2020 may be examples of crossing a critical state in large-scale atmospheric circulation variability.James E. OverlandMDPI AGarticleheatwavepolar vortexextreme eventspacific northwestMeteorology. ClimatologyQC851-999ENAtmosphere, Vol 12, Iss 1434, p 1434 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	heatwave polar vortex extreme events pacific northwest Meteorology. Climatology QC851-999
spellingShingle	heatwave polar vortex extreme events pacific northwest Meteorology. Climatology QC851-999 James E. Overland Causes of the Record-Breaking Pacific Northwest Heatwave, Late June 2021
description	The extreme heat event that hit the Pacific Northwest (Oregon, Washington, southern British Columbia) at the end of June 2021 was 3 °C greater than the previous Seattle record of 39 °C; larger extremes of 49 °C were observed further inland that were 6 °C above previous record. There were hundreds of deaths over the region and loss of marine life and forests. At the large scale prior to the event, the polar vortex was split over the Arctic. A polar vortex instability center formed over the Bering Sea and then extended southward along the west coast of North America. The associated tropospheric trough (low geopotential heights) established a multi-day synoptic scale Omega Block (west-east oriented low/high/low geopotential heights) centered over the Pacific Northwest. Warming was sustained in the region due to subsidence/adiabatic heating and solar radiation, which were the main reasons for such large temperature extremes. The seasonal transition at the end of spring suggests the possibility of a southern excursion of a polar vortex/jet stream pair. Both the Pacific Northwest event in 2021 and the Siberian heatwave climax in June 2020 may be examples of crossing a critical state in large-scale atmospheric circulation variability.
format	article
author	James E. Overland
author_facet	James E. Overland
author_sort	James E. Overland
title	Causes of the Record-Breaking Pacific Northwest Heatwave, Late June 2021
title_short	Causes of the Record-Breaking Pacific Northwest Heatwave, Late June 2021
title_full	Causes of the Record-Breaking Pacific Northwest Heatwave, Late June 2021
title_fullStr	Causes of the Record-Breaking Pacific Northwest Heatwave, Late June 2021
title_full_unstemmed	Causes of the Record-Breaking Pacific Northwest Heatwave, Late June 2021
title_sort	causes of the record-breaking pacific northwest heatwave, late june 2021
publisher	MDPI AG
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/d4d06ad2dcd14b31a85b1c90bed956a9
work_keys_str_mv	AT jameseoverland causesoftherecordbreakingpacificnorthwestheatwavelatejune2021
_version_	1718413045719367680

Causes of the Record-Breaking Pacific Northwest Heatwave, Late June 2021

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