Heat wave

File:Canicule Europe 2003.jpg

Temperature difference in Europe from the average during a heat wave in 2003.

A heat wave is a period of unusually warm or very hot weather, and may be accompanied by high humidity. "Heat wave" is not an exact term: Any weather that feels warmer than people expect, might be called a heat wave. For example, temperatures normal for a warmer climate might be called a "heat wave" by people living in a place that is usually cooler. So a "heat wave" could mean a little warm weather, (like "several days as hot as summer, but in winter"), or temperatures so high they make history, (such as, "the hottest summer in a hundred years").

Heat Wave Media

• 

  A high pressure system in the upper atmosphere traps heat near the ground, forming a heat wave (for North America in this example)

• 

  Scorched grass in Greenwich Park, London, England, during a heatwave in August 2022.

• Map of increasing heat wave trends (frequency and cumulative intensity) over the midlatitudes and Europe, July–August 1979–2020

• Heat stroke treatment at Baton Rouge during the 2016 Louisiana floods

• The National Weather Service risk categories for NWS HeatRisk

• 2009 southeastern Australia heat wave, thermal map approximate affected area shown in red

Related pages

• Extreme weather
• List of heat waves

Other websites

• FEMA: Extreme Heat
• Hot Weather Tips Archived 2006-06-21 at the Wayback Machine
• Marble Bar heatwave, 1923-1924Archived 2009-03-17 at Pandora Archive