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HEAT DOME. stalled jet stream.
Stuck in place
The heat burning up the country right now is due in part to a persistent high-pressure system, also called a heat ridge or dome, which parked itself over the mountain West, and has now shifted east into the Midwest and Southeast. The system is stuck in place, Weber said, because of a slowdown of the North Atlantic Oscillation, a climate pattern that pulls weather patterns eastward across the country.
This "blocking" of the Atlantic has caused the jet stream, which normally ferries air from west to east across the United States, to buckle and trap heat in the Midwest and Southeast, Weber said.
It looks like the epicenter for heat this year will be the state of Missouri and its surroundings, he said. And the heat dome doesn't look likely to completely dislodge itself for the remainder of the summer. Above-average temperatures are expected throughout the central and eastern parts of the country (excluding the northeastern states of Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine), Carbin said.