As summer arrives, media outlets predictably trot out their most sensational weather terms, even though hot weather is just part of the season.

The term heat dome is so overused it’s almost code for get ready, the apocalypse is coming. Despite summer always being hot, every temperature spike is now dubbed a heat dome, scorcher, or a menacing weather supervillain roaming the earth.

For instance, here’s the latest report on the East Coast heat wave from the ever dramatic CNN hyping up the heat dome spreading nationwide.

An extremely dangerous heat wave is underway for the eastern half of the United States as a potent heat dome reaches its peak, bringing the hottest temperatures of the year so far – the hottest in years for some cities – and putting tens of millions at risk.

Over 250 daily temperature records could be broken during the peak of the heat on Monday and Tuesday, including both record highs and record warm lows. Temperatures in some locations from Philadelphia to Boston could be the hottest in any month in over a decade. Additional records could fall Wednesday and Thursday.

A heat dome is indeed a real phenomenon: a sprawling, stagnant high-pressure system that locks in hot air, causing prolonged, intense heat.

But when it comes to news headlines, it’s morphed from a meteorological term into a menacing specter—constantly looming, growing, and endangering millions.

The American Meteorological Society only added heat dome to its glossary in 2022. But that hasn’t stopped media outlets from flinging the term around for years, often conflating it with heat wave or just hot weather. But the media’s latest fear porn even includes graphics of a fiery spectrum of red, deeper red, and apocalyptic crimson used to, hopefully, result in the hysterical outcome they desire.

However, it was eventual that every heat dome story would inevitably mention climate change. Scientists and politicians readily connect each hot day to global warming, with media outlets, like the AP, eagerly spreading the narrative.

The heat is part of Earth’s long-term warming. Summers in the United States are 2.4 degrees (1.3 degrees Celsius) hotter than 50 years ago, according to NOAA data. Human-caused climate change has made this heat wave three times more likely than without the burning of coal, oil and gas, the climate science nonprofit Climate Central calculated, using computer simulations comparing the current weather to a fictional world without the industrial greenhouse gases.

Fortunately, the so-called experts are being taken to task on this.

Furthermore, numerous climate experts are highlighting the facts about weather and historical trends. Chris Martz, a recent meteorology graduate, points out that temperatures were higher in 1988.

Additionally, like is mentioned above, the mainstream media seems to be overlooking the cold wave affecting the western part of the country.

Heat domes are a genuine phenomenon and can pose risks to vulnerable people (like the elderly). However, the media’s tendency to cry wolf labeling every hot day as a climate crisis may desensitize the public to actual dangers. When every heat wave is called a heat dome and portrayed as a sign of impending catastrophe, people will end up dismissing the warnings, which undermines the goal of responsible journalism.