A burst of late-September heat in Tennessee came with an unusual distinction: weather creator @ryanhallyall said the state was under the strongest heat dome anywhere on Earth, a setup that helped push temperatures into extreme territory.
Here’s what to know
In a TikTok video, Hall pointed to the state’s atmospheric midpoint, saying it stood at 19,665 feet above sea level — a level he said was higher than anywhere else on Earth as the hot air mass swelled overhead.
@ryanhallyall
The strongest heat dome on the planet right now is sitting over Tennessee. Not the Sahara. Not the Middle East. Tennessee. Heat makes air swell. Over Tennessee the halfway point of the atmosphere is 19,665 feet up, higher than anywhere else on Earth. Nashville hit 100 on September 15. In 153 years of records it has only been this hot this late one other time. The dome starts shifting this weekend. I’ll tell you when a cold front finally breaks it.
♬ original sound – Ryan Hall
According to Hall, Tennessee was sitting beneath a major heat dome, the kind of pattern that acts like a lid and lets heat accumulate. He said the air under a large dome sinks instead of rising, and as it descends it becomes warmer and drier, making cloud formation less likely and allowing temperatures to continue climbing…