America is having a hot girl summer

You’ve probably heard of the Thunderdome, an arena for steel-cage fights in the movie Mad Max. But today’s story is about its slightly-less-exciting cousin: the heat dome.

More specifically – the ongoing heat dome that’s placed roughly 100 million Americans living in the southern US under a heat advisory for the past week straight.

🔢 By the numbers: From California to Florida, historically high temperatures have been recorded across dozens of southern cities in recent days. A few examples:

• Miami-Dade County was placed under an excessive heat advisory on Sunday for the first time in history, with the local heat index reaching as high as 112°F.
• Death Valley, CA, reached an official high of 128°F on Sunday – just six degrees shy of the hottest temperature ever recorded on Earth (also at Death Valley, in 1919).
• Reno hit 108°F on Sunday, matching its highest temperature ever observed, while Flagstaff (96°F), Las Vegas (116°F), and Salt Lake City (106°F) each missed all-time highs by a single degree.

👀 Looking ahead… Weather forecasters expect the heat dome currently parked over the southern US to remain in place through the end of this week. After that, it's projected to retreat from the Southeast – but continue bombarding the Southwest into next week and beyond.