This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: As climate change has led to more frequent extreme-heat events around the world, moist heat metrics such as wet-bulb temperature, which combines temperature and humidity, have become increasingly relevant. Days with both high heat and high humidity are dangerous to human health; understanding how these extreme events will change in the future is important.
Byrne examined moist heat extremes over extratropical continents using ERA5 reanalysis data (the fifth generation of reanalysis from the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts) and the Community Earth System Model Version 2 (CESM2) global climate model. They paid special attention to how dry air mixes into plumes of warm, moist air moving upward in convective environments. The paper is published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
The authors simulated varying rates at which dry air mixes into plumes rising from near Earth's surface to the upper troposphere and found that this process, known as entrainment, significantly influences moist heat extremes outside the tropics. The authors say this process alters the relationship between the amounts of stored energy in air near the ground and higher in the troposphere. This mixing of dry air into rising plumes enables near-surface air to become more energetic through higher humidity and temperature, leading to more severe moist heat events.
Using simulations, the authors found that as the climate warms and the lower troposphere becomes drier, the entrainment mechanism will continue to raise wet-bulb temperatures at the surface, potentially leading to even more severe moist heat extremes. Jha et al, Entrainment‐Based Framework for Understanding Extratropical Moist Heat Extremes, Geophysical Research Letters (2026). DOI: 10.1029/2026gl122678 Journal information: Geophysical Research Letters BA art history, MA material culture.
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