Why are heat domes forming more frequently in recent years?

A heat dome is like a big bubble of hot air that traps heat and keeps it from escaping.

Imagine you're playing outside on a sunny day, and you put a clear plastic cover over your sandbox, the sand gets super hot because the sun's warmth can't escape. That’s what a heat dome does to the Earth. It traps the heat and makes everything hotter.

In recent years, the air has gotten warmer overall, like how your room feels after you've been running around playing for a while, it's just hotter everywhere.

Also, weather patterns have changed. Strong high-pressure systems, which act like the plastic cover over your sandbox, are staying in place longer now, keeping the hot air trapped for days or even weeks.

So with a warmer Earth and stronger weather patterns, we get more heat domes, it’s like having more sunny days with that plastic cover on your sandbox!