Assessing regional characteristics of heat waves in the US

Heat waves lead to greater human mortality and morbidity in the US than any other hydrometeorological extreme yet lack a universal definition. In this paper several definitions of heat waves are employed to contrast their geographical distribution, persistence characteristics and spatial extent based on daily observations from a fairly dense network of surface reporting stations across the US. Important caveats are discussed when considering the analysis of heat waves at the local and regional scale, including the use of global circulation models to examine their trends in climate change projections.