High heat and humidity blanketed many states in the U.S. South, Midwest and Great Plains in late August 2023, when a large area of high pressure and warm air, often referred to as a heat dome, parked over the interior United States.
The accompanying map shows air temperatures modeled at 2 meters (6.5 feet) above the ground at about 3 p.m. Central Time on Aug. 23, 2023. It was produced by combining satellite observations with temperatures predicted by a version of the Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS) model, which uses mathematical equations to represent physical processes in the atmosphere. The darkest reds indicate areas where temperatures exceeded 104°F (40°C). Many areas across the middle of the country sweltered under record or near-record heat in this stretch of weather.
Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory image by Lauren Dauphin, using GEOS-5 data from the Global Modeling and Assimilation Office at NASA GSFC
