Europe is being cooked right now, but what’s the reason for this heatwave? — Transcript

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1. 0:00Did you know Europe is being cooked raw
2. 0:02right now? And the cause is one of the
3. 0:04strangest weather patterns on Earth. Let
4. 0:06me explain. Temperatures above 40°
5. 0:08across France, Spain, Italy, and parts
6. 0:11of the UK. Red alerts issued, schools
7. 0:13shut down, dozens dead, and it's not
8. 0:15stopping. But why? Behind all of it is
9. 0:18something called the Omega block. High
10. 0:20above the planet, there's a river of
11. 0:21fast-moving air called the jet stream
12. 0:23flowing west to east around the entire
13. 0:25Earth. Normally, it keeps weather
14. 0:27moving, pushing hot air out, pulling
15. 0:29cool air in. It's the reason your
16. 0:31weather changes from day to day. But
17. 0:32here's what's unbelievable. That jet
18. 0:34stream has completely jammed. When it
19. 0:36locks into the shape of the Greek letter
20. 0:38Omega, everything stops. In the center
21. 0:40sits a massive dome of high pressure
22. 0:42packed with scorching hot air. On both
23. 0:44sides sit cooler low-pressure systems
24. 0:47acting as walls, locking the dome in
25. 0:49place so it physically cannot move. That
26. 0:51trapped dome becomes a lid on a pot. It
27. 0:53reaches down to the Sahara, pulls
28. 0:55scorching dry air northward, presses it
29. 0:57down over Europe, and just sits there.
30. 0:59No wind, no breeze, no escape. And
31. 1:01here's the craziest part. Every single
32. 1:03day that dome stays locked, the trapped
33. 1:05air gets compressed further, and
34. 1:07compression generates heat. So it
35. 1:09doesn't just stay hot, it gets hotter
36. 1:11every single day until the pattern
37. 1:12breaks. And nobody can predict exactly
38. 1:14when that will be.