It seems that every summer lately has seen its share of heat waves that the press views as a potential end of humanity if people are not careful. The headlines blare out that millions of people are at risk. The eastern part of the country is experiencing one such heat wave now.
The latest term of choice is “heat dome” that has practically become shorthand for “the end is nigh.”
A heat dome is a weather phenomenon in which a persistent area of high atmospheric pressure traps hot air over a large region for an extended period, sometimes days or even weeks. This high-pressure system acts like a lid or cap, preventing the hot air from rising and escaping, which intensifies the heat at the surface.
In the hands of media hacks, this term has been transformed from a technical weather pattern that sometimes occurs into the grim reaper is at your door. Every spike in the temperature is extremely dangerous according to these bobbleheads. Of course, this ignores the fact that summers have always been hot from time to time, sometimes extremely so. And somehow humanity has trudged on.
Look, heat domes are a real thing. They can be dangerous to the very young, very old and the sick. But the media turning every hot day into some kind of catastrophic event will eventually have people completely ignore warnings from the so-called weather experts. In some cases that might be a bad thing.
It would be nice if the weather people could go back to being just that rather than harbingers of doom. However, in the media, if it bleeds, it leads. So, I suppose we are stuck with headlines of imminent doom.