Europe is baking under a scorching heatwave, with health warnings in place across western and central parts of the continent as temperatures climb to record-breaking highs.<\/p>\n
Among the factors driving these extremes are atmospheric and circulation patterns that keep hot air trapped in place for days, causing the mercury to slowly rise.<\/p>\n
Scientists say these weather patterns are nothing new, but heatwaves are made more intense in a world hotter because of burning fossil fuels.<\/p>\n
– ‘Omega block’ –<\/p>\n
A circulation pattern over Europe is creating “the equivalent of a traffic jam in the atmosphere which locks in heat”, Samantha Burgess from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, told AFP.<\/p>\n
A ridge of high pressure drawing hot air from North Africa is wedged between two areas of low pressure, one in central Europe and the other off the coast of Portugal.<\/p>\n
This is known as an “omega block”.<\/p>\n
The pattern gets its name because the jet stream — a current in the atmosphere that moves air and weather systems from west to east — bends into a shape resembling the Greek letter.<\/p>\n
– Vacuum cleaner –<\/p>\n
The area of high pressure gets stuck “because of the pressure on either side”, said Burgess, a climate scientist and strategic lead for climate at ECMWF.<\/p>\n
“The jet stream gets stuck in a loop and it forces other weather systems to go around it,” she said.<\/p>\n
With little energy available to disrupt it, the omega pattern can persist for days — or weeks — allowing heat to stew and temperatures to intensify beneath it.<\/p>\n
“So hence blocking — it means that once this meteorological set-up gets going, it can just keep reinforcing itself for some time,” said Will Lang, chief meteorologist at the UK’s Met Office.<\/p>\n
Sebastien Leas, a forecaster at France’s weather service, likened it to a “vacuum cleaner, drawing in heat and masses of hot air rising from North Africa” and blasting it northward in a violent torrent.<\/p>\n
– Heat dome –<\/p>\n
If this pattern is very stable, the high pressure system can evolve into a “heat dome”.<\/p>\n
This acts like an atmospheric lid on a boiling pot, trapping heat beneath. Air sinking beneath the pressure warms as it is compressed, while heat near the surface cannot escape.<\/p>\n
These conditions suppress cloud formation and favour still weather with little wind. Clearer skies allow more sunshine to cook Earth’s surface, creating a heat feedback loop.<\/p>\n
“Under the right conditions — and you do need the right conditions — it just gets hotter and hotter,” said Lang.<\/p>\n
– Hotter world –<\/p>\n
Heat domes and omega patterns are nothing new and can form separately from each other, experts said.<\/p>\n
A heatwave in late May across Europe was tied to a heat dome, while a horseshoe-shaped omega pattern was identified as a key driver of a major hot spell over France in June 2025.<\/p>\n
They are also not unique to Europe but occur in both hemispheres across the world’s middle latitudes. “They can occur over the Pacific, over Europe, over North America,” said Burgess.<\/p>\n
Scientists say there has been an increase in high pressure systems in Europe in recent decades but whether this is a consequence of climate change remains a subject of debate.<\/p>\n
Burgess said when heat domes do occur “the subsequent heatwave is more intense than it otherwise would have been without climate change”.<\/p>\n
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