The strongest heat dome on the planet will soon tower 3.7 miles above Tennessee, drawing extreme heat and humidity into the central United States from the Gulf of Mexico.
A Post analysis shows that about 20 percent of the land area β covering around 7.5 million square miles β experienced moderate or greater concentrations of the soot released by wildfires at some point during July.
Hundreds of records fell as temperatures climbed to levels higher than nearly the rest of the planet. The heat wave will expand across Europe through the weekend.
NOAA warned of a rare high-risk level for excessive rainfall that could cause flash flooding in a stretch from eastern Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle on Thursday.