HOUSTON \u2013 I hope you got a chance to enjoy the cooler weather that we\u2019ve been experiencing over the last few weeks as we\u2019re about to get jolted into a quick summertime pattern starting this weekend. <\/p>\n
Hot high pressure temps this week (Copyright 2025 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n
Yes, you heard me right, summer is about to plant an early lawn chair across the southern half of the United States courtesy of a record-setting and unusually strong ridge of high pressure across the desert southwest. <\/p>\n
Heat dome dominating our weather pattern (Copyright 2025 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n
So what IS this \u201cheat dome\u201d and how does it affect our weather? Let\u2019s take those questions one at a time: <\/p>\n
What is it? <\/p>\n
A massive \u201cheat dome\u201d is parked over the western United States\u2014and it\u2019s acting like a lid on a boiling pot.<\/p>\n
Heat dome (Copyright 2025 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n
In weather terms, think of it as a strong area of high pressure in the upper levels of the atmosphere. Conversely, think of it as a giant bubble of sinking air stretching over states like California, Nevada and Arizona. That sinking air compresses and heats up as it moves downward, essentially baking the ground below day after day.<\/p>\n
Highs for Friday (Copyright 2025 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.)What effects will it bring? <\/p>\n
It traps the heat: The heat dome suppresses cloud formation, meaning relentless sunshine, dry, hot air that serves as a reinforcing convective oven. The hot air compresses to the surface, which makes more hot air with compresses to the surface … you get the idea. <\/p>\n
It blocks relief: Storm systems that would normally bring cooler air are forced to track well north and detour into places like Washington and Oregon, Southern Canada.<\/p>\n
It builds over time: Each day adds another layer of heat, pushing temperatures into record territory\u2014especially in cities like Phoenix and Las Vegas, which could see all-time record highs for the month of March this week and weekend<\/p>\n
What effects will it have on Texas? <\/p>\n
The same heat dome baking the western U.S. is expanding east into Texas, and it\u2019s giving us an early taste of summer\u2014just without the extreme triple-digit numbers seen out west. <\/p>\n
Texas weekend temps (Copyright 2025 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n
Think of it as the edge of the oven, not the center\u2014but it\u2019s still hot. In fact, we\u2019ll be pushing our temperatures into the upper 80s by this weekend! <\/p>\n
Daily summer heat highs this week (Copyright 2025 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n
While the worst of the heat stays out West, we\u2019ll be feeling the ripple effect\u2014an early-season heat wave that\u2019s pushing temperatures into the 90s, shutting off rain, and giving Houston a preview of summer\u2026 in March. Buckle up, y\u2019all … <\/p>\n
Anthony’s Weather Lab<\/p>\n
More Stories Like This In Our Email Newsletter<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2013 I hope you got a chance to enjoy the cooler weather that we\u2019ve been experiencing over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":211740,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[3205,12277,56,58,57,38675,172],"class_list":["post-211739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-heat","tag-heat-dome","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-kprc","tag-weather"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211739\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}