HEAT WAVE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does heat wave mean? 

• HEAT WAVE (noun)
  The noun HEAT WAVE has 1 sense:

1. a wave of unusually hot weather

  Familiarity information: HEAT WAVE used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• HEAT WAVE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A wave of unusually hot weather

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural phenomena

Hypernyms ("heat wave" is a kind of...):

wave (a persistent and widespread unusual weather condition (especially of unusual temperatures))

 Context examples 

When factors such as heat waves destroy seagrasses, sharks become critical for ecosystem health.

(Sharks, the seagrass protectors, National Science Foundation)

Depending on when and where they develop, blocking events can cause droughts or downpours and heat waves or cold spells.

(Stalled weather patterns will get bigger due to climate change, National Science Foundation)

Extensive, mature forest cover can mitigate the impact of severe heat waves, droughts and other weather extremes over large regions, according to new NOAA research.

(Forests minimize severe heat waves, NOAA)

Climate experts think that climate change will bring increasingly frequent and severe heat waves and extreme weather events, as well as a rise in sea levels.

(Climate Change, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

In particular, going without AC during a heat wave hurt their reaction time when they had to make quick judgments.

(Hot Dorm Rooms Could Affect Students' Memory, Sadie Witkowski/VOA)

Heat waves cause widespread discomfort and can be deadly for vulnerable individuals, while surface ozone and air pollution are linked to premature death from heart disease, stroke and lung ailments.

(Dangers of Concurrent Heat Waves, Air Pollution, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Their findings predicted that heat waves would be the most lethal weather disasters, causing 99 percent of all future weather-related deaths in Europe.

(Study: Climate Change Will Bring 50-Fold Rise in Europe Weather-related Deaths, VOA News)

Half of the Great Barrier Reef, the largest reef system in the world, suffered catastrophic damage in a 2016 heat wave, followed by bleaching the next year.

(Loudspeakers used to attract fish back to dying coral reefs, SciDev.Net)

Co-author of the study and senior scientist at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Michael McPhaden, tells SciDev.Net: “The MJO contributes to flooding, dry spells, heat waves, severe tropical storms and other extreme weather events in the far reaches of the globe.

(Global disasters linked to warming Indo-Pacific seas, SciDev.Net)

Part of last year’s jump was attributable to El Nino, the cyclical Pacific Ocean warming that produces extreme weather across the globe, causing terrestrial ecosystems to lose stored CO2 through wildfire, drought and heat waves.

(South Pole is last place on Earth to pass global warming milestone, NOAA)