Every heat event the pipeline tracked between 2026-05-01 and 2026-09-30, with how each one grew, peaked and moved. Anomalies are against the 1991–2020 baseline.
Season at a glance
Events tracked
25
Total heat burden
139.35 Mkm²·days
Longest
45days (#9)
Hottest
+19.8°C (#9)
With a heat dome
12of 25 events
A heat dome is the stricter object: a tracked heat event with a closed 500 hPa anticyclone whose influence cap overlies it, after Loikith et al. (2026). Most heatwaves are not domes, so the label is a finding and not a synonym.
ERA5 daily maximum 2 m temperature over land, against the 1991–2020 climatology (p90 in a centred 15-day window). A heatwave cell is Tx above p90 on at least 3 consecutive days.
provisional This season is not closed. The pipeline has processed to 2026-09-30, and everything from 2026-09-29 on can still change as later days arrive — an event ending in that window may still be running. The most recent days are ERA5T (preliminary) and the last 2 carry a provisional flag: their heatwave status can still change as later days arrive. ERA5 daily statistics lag real time by about 6 days, so the newest row here is not today.
When the events ran
Overlapping bars are concurrent events in different places, not one event counted twice: each is a separately labelled cluster of contiguous heatwave cells.
How each event evolved
Event #9 — 2026-06-12 → 2026-07-26 45 daysheat dome · 26/45 d · Z500 +245 m
peak 2.16 M km² on 2026-06-28 · max +19.8 °C · mean +8.9 °C · burden 42.57 M km²·d · drift 687 km (43.7 N 1.3 E → 37.8 N -1.0 E)
Event #16 — 2026-07-26 → 2026-08-19 25 dayshigh on 10/25 d only
peak 1.81 M km² on 2026-08-05 · max +15.7 °C · mean +7.7 °C · burden 22.88 M km²·d · drift 1008 km (39.3 N 15.9 E → 43.8 N 5.4 E)
Event #4 — 2026-05-20 → 2026-06-06 18 daysheat dome · 13/18 d · Z500 +311 m
peak 1.94 M km² on 2026-05-27 · max +15.5 °C · mean +8.7 °C · burden 14.75 M km²·d · drift 406 km (38.6 N -7.1 E → 38.0 N -2.5 E)
Event #19 — 2026-08-17 → 2026-09-12 27 daysheat dome · 14/27 d · Z500 +183 m
peak 1.33 M km² on 2026-09-07 · max +14.7 °C · mean +7.1 °C · burden 13.57 M km²·d · drift 291 km (42.1 N 24.0 E → 40.0 N 21.9 E)
Event #24 — 2026-09-11 → 2026-09-30 20 daysstill openheat dome · 11/20 d · Z500 +227 m
peak 1.15 M km² on 2026-09-27 · max +13.9 °C · mean +7.8 °C · burden 12.28 M km²·d · drift 1758 km (39.0 N -6.7 E → 49.5 N 9.9 E)
Event #2 — 2026-05-11 → 2026-05-24 14 daysheat dome · 8/14 d · Z500 +262 m
peak 1.26 M km² on 2026-05-20 · max +18.4 °C · mean +10.8 °C · burden 7.31 M km²·d · drift 1904 km (67.1 N 44.3 E → 50.0 N 41.8 E)
Event #1 — 2026-05-01 → 2026-05-10 10 dayshigh on 4/9 d only
peak 1.27 M km² on 2026-05-04 · max +12.5 °C · mean +8.7 °C · burden 6.63 M km²·d · drift 1748 km (50.9 N 14.4 E → 49.0 N 38.7 E)
Event #13 — 2026-07-08 → 2026-07-26 19 dayshigh on 3/19 d only
peak 227k km² on 2026-07-17 · max +13.4 °C · mean +7.0 °C · burden 2.86 M km²·d · drift 300 km (36.8 N 4.3 E → 35.7 N 7.3 E)
Event #25 — 2026-09-20 → 2026-09-28 9 dayshigh on 3/9 d only
peak 487k km² on 2026-09-24 · max +14.9 °C · mean +9.1 °C · burden 2.02 M km²·d · drift 764 km (58.3 N 40.1 E → 65.0 N 43.5 E)
Event #20 — 2026-08-22 → 2026-09-03 13 dayshigh on 3/13 d only
peak 173k km² on 2026-08-26 · max +14.0 °C · mean +6.8 °C · burden 1.90 M km²·d · drift 218 km (35.7 N 6.7 E → 35.6 N 4.3 E)
Event #12 — 2026-07-02 → 2026-07-24 23 daysheat dome · 13/23 d · Z500 +324 m
peak 183k km² on 2026-07-08 · max +13.1 °C · mean +7.6 °C · burden 1.61 M km²·d · drift 342 km (51.3 N 0.6 E → 51.8 N -4.3 E)
Event #14 — 2026-07-08 → 2026-07-17 10 daysheat dome · 7/10 d · Z500 +324 m
peak 366k km² on 2026-07-15 · max +12.5 °C · mean +8.1 °C · burden 1.59 M km²·d · drift 297 km (58.4 N 8.1 E → 59.4 N 12.9 E)
Event #6 — 2026-06-01 → 2026-06-13 13 dayshigh on 1/13 d only
peak 282k km² on 2026-06-05 · max +15.8 °C · mean +9.5 °C · burden 1.46 M km²·d · drift 677 km (70.5 N 23.0 E → 67.8 N 38.4 E)
Event #7 — 2026-06-07 → 2026-06-13 7 daysno overlying high
peak 297k km² on 2026-06-11 · max +10.4 °C · mean +7.5 °C · burden 1.09 M km²·d · drift 238 km (58.6 N 40.7 E → 56.6 N 39.4 E)
Event #5 — 2026-05-22 → 2026-06-02 12 daysheat dome · 8/12 d · Z500 +311 m
peak 178k km² on 2026-05-25 · max +16.5 °C · mean +9.5 °C · burden 1.07 M km²·d · drift 148 km (52.4 N -0.8 E → 53.6 N 0.0 E)
Event #8 — 2026-06-11 → 2026-06-18 8 dayshigh on 2/8 d only
peak 230k km² on 2026-06-13 · max +16.5 °C · mean +9.8 °C · burden 919k km²·d · drift 210 km (65.4 N 43.9 E → 67.2 N 44.2 E)
Event #10 — 2026-06-21 → 2026-06-27 7 daysheat dome · 6/7 d · Z500 +245 m
peak 180k km² on 2026-06-23 · max +16.9 °C · mean +10.4 °C · burden 882k km²·d · drift 157 km (51.6 N -1.9 E → 52.9 N -0.9 E)
Event #17 — 2026-08-08 → 2026-08-18 11 daysheat dome · 6/11 d · Z500 +218 m
peak 180k km² on 2026-08-12 · max +15.2 °C · mean +8.1 °C · burden 775k km²·d · drift 48 km (51.1 N -2.9 E → 50.7 N -3.1 E)
Event #15 — 2026-07-17 → 2026-07-22 6 dayshigh on 2/6 d only
peak 147k km² on 2026-07-19 · max +8.8 °C · mean +5.6 °C · burden 631k km²·d · drift 538 km (42.9 N 18.6 E → 38.7 N 21.8 E)
Event #22 — 2026-09-05 → 2026-09-10 6 dayshigh on 1/6 d only
peak 138k km² on 2026-09-07 · max +8.0 °C · mean +5.2 °C · burden 506k km²·d · drift 736 km (35.8 N 1.9 E → 35.8 N 10.0 E)
Event #23 — 2026-09-10 → 2026-09-14 5 daysheat dome · 4/5 d · Z500 +130 m
peak 138k km² on 2026-09-12 · max +10.2 °C · mean +6.9 °C · burden 456k km²·d · drift 451 km (48.0 N 36.5 E → 46.0 N 41.7 E)
Event #3 — 2026-05-16 → 2026-05-24 9 dayshigh on 3/9 d only
peak 104k km² on 2026-05-21 · max +14.6 °C · mean +9.0 °C · burden 447k km²·d · drift 166 km (66.0 N 33.9 E → 67.5 N 34.6 E)
Event #21 — 2026-08-22 → 2026-08-27 6 dayshigh on 3/6 d only
peak 123k km² on 2026-08-23 · max +8.1 °C · mean +4.8 °C · burden 418k km²·d · drift 248 km (38.8 N 42.0 E → 38.3 N 44.8 E)
Event #11 — 2026-06-24 → 2026-06-29 6 daysheat dome · 6/6 d · Z500 +245 m
peak 104k km² on 2026-06-27 · max +14.6 °C · mean +8.8 °C · burden 367k km²·d · drift 346 km (56.1 N 14.1 E → 58.9 N 16.7 E)
Event #18 — 2026-08-15 → 2026-08-19 5 daysno overlying high
peak 112k km² on 2026-08-17 · max +10.1 °C · mean +6.1 °C · burden 340k km²·d · drift 404 km (41.7 N -8.8 E → 41.0 N -4.0 E)
Filled area is the event footprint in km² (left axis); the solid line is the peak anomaly inside it and the dashed line the mean (right axis). The small panel is the centroid path, circles sized by area and the ring marking day one. Drift is the straight-line start-to-end distance, so a dome that wandered and returned reports a small number.