The heat wave that is baking America is being called a “heat dome”.
A better name would be “Hadley’s Horrible High” or “The Attack of the Hadley Cell”.
Whatever it’s called, it means sweat, misery and higher electrical bills when you crank up the air conditioner.
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George Hadley was an 18th century scientist who noted that:
- Hot air rises,
- Cold air sinks, and
- The rotation of the Earth affects winds.
Tropical air circulation – a Hadley Cell
Source: Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:HadleyCross-sec.jpg
It all sounds harmless doesn’t it? Now his name has been given to the circulation pattern of tropical air, a Hadley cell. It is this swirl of tropical air that causes hurricanes, monsoons and heat waves. Unfortunately this tropic pattern shifts north during summer and the heat that would normally be blasting the South visits the Midwest.
Here’s how the Hadley cell works:
- The area where the sun is shining directly over head gets hot. Hot air rises. The warm air rises and cools until the moisture in the atmosphere rains out. This band of rising air and rain produces low air pressure and tropical storms.
- The rotation of the Earth steers winds away from the equators toward the poles.
- As the tropical air drifts through the high atmosphere, further and further north, (or south if it is south of the equator) it cools off. Cold air sinks. At around 30°N it sinks. This area where the air is plunging downward is called a high pressure area. It blasts away any clouds and moisture and the sun bakes the area so that it is very hot and dry.
- Winds blow away from the high pressure and the general flow is from the 30° latitude back towards the equator.
This tropical circulation produces tropical climate – jungles around the equator, deserts around the 30° highs and monsoons with wet and dry seasons in between.
Unfortunately, that tropical Hadley cell is not staying south of 30° where it belongs. As your elementary teacher taught you, the Earth is tilted towards the sun in summer time. This means that on June 20, the sun is beating directly down at 23° north. The whole Hadley cell circulation shifts north. The atmospheric high, and the heat it causes shifts north. Instead of beating down on Arizona, it drifts north into the Great Plains.
Hadley cells – Stormy lows in the tropics and cloudless heat waves in the Great Plains.
SOURCE: © Browning Newsletter on a satellite photo from NASA
So if you feel blasted by the heat, you’re right! You are being blasted by tropical air. The news is calling this area of high pressure a heat dome, but it’s more accurately a heat bomb, brought to you by your friendly Hadley cell. You are under attack – so go inside and take shelter by the first air conditioner that you can find.
James J. Garriss
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I wish we were experiencing "cloudless heat waves in the Great Plains"...in west central Minnesota we have had some heat but also severe storms every other day dumping inches of rain each time. We don't need the rain...lake and river flooding threatening homes. Why is this unusual and severe weather happening? When will it end? Everyone is concerned to say the least.
Could the heat dome be man made since it is unusual?
This is natural. The additional heat in the cities in the dome is being created by man-made urban heat islands.
How much longer do you think that the heat will last? Will it continue to get hotter? I have always heard the hotter the summer the colder the winter, Are we in for a bad winter also? I live in Troy, NC and I am wondering what are we to expect if this is true. I am ready for the heat to leave and the cooler weather to come back. Thought I would ask.
Typically the heat continues to be a problem through most of August, although I am hopeful for more rain for parts of the South.
And yes, there are a lot of indications that this winter will be really cold.
First: the Old Farmer's Almanac is the most useful tool in the hands of Americans today.
I had not heard of the Hadley Cell but hve figured out the principle on my own. I heard on PRM during the oil spill spoken by a geologist with the University of Florida that the BP oil well would never be capped. I agree, becuase of the rotational aspect of near the equitator centrifigual propulsion outward sling toward the rim of the plain in unison with that equitortial ring. You also have to add the temperture of the liquid, something like 600 degrees F and internal pressure due to compression and gravitational influence, plus, the containment of other gases in gaseous form and the inclusion of eroded materials that are like sandblasing materials shoved out of the well head at velocities of up to but not less than ten to one-hunred feet per second and a mixture weighing about ten pounds per cubic foot and as much as fifty or sixty pounds per cubic foot. What a canon that well head was til it fizzled out.
We are in a mess concerning our environmental conditions and nothing we are doing to control greenhouse gases is going to make an iota of difference after so much introductin of toxic and contminated chemistry adn volume of mass in teh atmosphere. It is going to take up to 500 years to make a small difference and up to two-thousand years to get any feedback at all that improvments are being obtained and another six-thousand years to beging to get some return on the investment of good environmental stewardship managment of our natural treasures. Amazing what Hadley figured out without computers, used pencil and paper and long hand math and calculations.
