heat wave
or heat·wave
a period of abnormally hot and usually humid weather; heat event: I moved to the coast up north because summer back home has become one long, unbearable heat wave.
an air mass of high temperature covering an extended area and moving relatively slowly: Another heat wave is expected to form across the South and into the Northeast by week’s end.
Origin of heat wave
1Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use heat wave in a sentence
EnerNOC in turn pays users—which it calls “assets”—to curtail power usage during peak-demand events such as a heat wave.
EnerNOC Helps Keeps Lights on During Heat Waves Through Demand Response | Edward Ferguson | July 20, 2013 | THE DAILY BEASTIf you thought this recent heat wave has been bad, try braving 1,800-degree temperatures with 4,350-mile-per-hour winds.
This summer's punishing heat wave could wreak havoc on grocery bills.
A study published in 2005 showed just that kind of loading for the European heat wave of 2003.
Does Global Warming Cause Severe Weather? “Global Weirdness” Excerpt | Climate Central | July 21, 2012 | THE DAILY BEASTAs a “giant heat wave” moved east across the nation, heat records that dated back to the Dust Bowl fell with uncanny speed.
The heat-wave had put forward the almanac, and the Newport season was in full swing nearly a month in advance of its usual date.
The Terms of Surrender | Louis TracyThe next day the first intense heat wave of summer swept over Tunkett.
Rilla of the Lighthouse | Grace May NorthIn the case of a sustained heat-wave, this would take place at some time during each night.
The Haunting of Low Fennel | Sax RohmerHere we were in the middle of a heat wave, the thermometer nudging ninety, and the old guy's wrist is like an icicle!
The Scapegoat | Richard MaplesWe were in a furnace—a heat-wave in which we were like to drown.
Hesperothen; Notes from the West, Vol. 1 (of 2) | W. H. Russell
British Dictionary definitions for heat wave
a continuous spell of abnormally hot weather
(not in technical use) an extensive slow-moving air mass at a relatively high temperature
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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