We’re in for a Major Heat Wave

KQED's Forum

KQED

News Commentary, News, Politics

4.2 • 727 Ratings

🗓️ 16 March 2026

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It’s about to get very hot. A prolonged heat wave is hitting Western states with Bay Area temperatures expected to get 20 to 30 degrees above average, likely shattering temperature records for March. And that’s after what has already been the warmest winter on record for most of the West. We’ll talk with climate scientist Daniel Swain about this unusual ‘heat dome’ and what it could mean for our already meager snowpack, the coming wildfire season and our water supply. Guests: Daniel Swain, climate scientist, University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources (UCANR) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:36.6	From KQED. From KQED.
0:39.2	Welcome to Forum. I'm Alexis Madrigal.
0:41.9	When I first started writing about the climate almost 20 years ago, there were all these
0:45.8	different scenarios for what might happen.
0:48.0	You know, the climate was going to get weird.
0:49.9	The Arctic would melt.
0:51.1	The tundra would thaw out.
0:52.9	And it wouldn't just be hot.
0:54.7	But things would happen that no one alive could remember happening that just didn't exist
0:59.0	in our modern records.
1:01.2	And it wouldn't happen just once, but with increasing frequency.
1:03.9	A stable climate system would swing into a new and unstable zone.
1:09.2	A heat dome is setting up over basically the entire western United States.
1:12.6	Temperatures we reach a couple times the summer, maybe in August or going to happen this week.
1:18.6	One atmospheric scientist, Rush Shoemaker, posted by how much and for how long will the upcoming weather pattern be breaking March records in the West,
1:28.7	a lot, and a long time. It sure feels like part of a new climate reality. And here to discuss,
1:36.3	we have climate scientist Daniel Swain with the California Institute for Water Resources at the
1:41.6	University of California. Thanks so much for joining with Daniel.
	...

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