00:00Today we're talking about a wall. It hangs 10 kilometers above the northern hemisphere.
00:05It's called the jet stream. And its only job is to keep the frozen arctic air on one side,
00:11and the scorching heat on the other. No crossing allowed. But this year, that wall has collapsed.
00:19In a catastrophic bend, it flung Sahara heat straight into Europe, 50 degrees Celsius.
00:25200 million people trapped under one lid. Nuclear power plants forced to shut down,
00:31not because of a malfunction, but because the river water used to cool the reactors was boiling itself.
00:36On the exact same day, people in northeast China reached for their jackets.
00:42June felt like October. One half of the planet baking. The other half freezing.
00:48And now that broken wall is drifting east. Next stop.
00:53China
00:54But before we look at China, let's understand just how insane this wall's collapse really is.
01:00Over the past week, Europe was trapped under an invisible lid.
01:04France hit 44 degrees, the hottest day since records began in 1947.
01:10Country after country shattered their all-time highs.
01:14Under that lid, the heat was merciless.
01:17In France alone, hundreds of heat-related deaths since June.
01:20But here's the kicker, European homes were built for cold winters, thick walls, small windows.
01:28Cozy in January.
01:30Deadly in July.
01:32Air conditioning coverage.
01:34Below 20%.
01:36People drove hundreds of kilometers just to find a fan.
01:39And this isn't a one-off.
01:42Research shows extreme heat days in Europe have increased by nearly 40 days per year compared to the 1970s.
01:49Now back to what connects it all, that jet stream.
01:5210,000 meters up, moving at 300 kilometers per hour, circling the entire northern hemisphere.
01:59Normally it runs fast and straight.
02:02But this year, it started snaking.
02:05Giant S-shaped bends.
02:07One of those bends swung south, scooped up Sahara air, and dumped it over Europe.
02:12Then it hit a high-pressure system, and together, they formed a lid.
02:17Meteorologists call it a heat dome.
02:19Under that lid, air gets compressed, clouds evaporate, and the sun just cooks.
02:25Heat goes in, but nothing goes out.
02:28That's how you get 44 degrees.
02:30Now, why did that normally straight wind suddenly go crooked?
02:34It's all about the temperature difference between the poles and the equator.
02:38The jet stream is powered by that contrast.
02:42Bigger contrast means a tighter, straighter wind.
02:45But recently, the Arctic has been warming way too fast.
02:49How fast?
02:51So fast that scientists keep revising their numbers.
02:55Ten years ago, they said four times the global average.
02:59Recent studies suggest it could be four times faster.
03:02The sea ice is literally disappearing from the map.
03:05The Arctic warms, the temperature gap shrinks, the jet stream loosens, and it starts wobbling, bending, and getting stuck.
03:14Scientists are still debating whether Arctic warming directly causes jet stream wobbling.
03:19But one thing is not up for debate.
03:22Once this wind bends and gets stuck, the weather underneath it is locked in.
03:26Sometimes it forms an omega block, a shape that traps a high-pressure system in place.
03:32What should be a two-day heatwave stays for ten?
03:35The real danger isn't the heat itself.
03:38It's that the wall bends, and then it stays.
03:41And that same bent wind is what chilled northeast China.
03:45The part that sent heat to Europe is also the part that dragged cold Arctic air down into northeast Asia.
03:51A cold vortex got stuck.
03:54July, and people in Jilin were walking around in jackets.
03:58A heat wave in Europe.
04:00A cold snap in northeast China.
04:03Same cause.
04:04Heat doesn't disappear.
04:07It just moves somewhere else.
04:09And right now, according to China's weather bureau, the same kind of heat dome forming over Europe is now brewing
04:15over Xinjiang.
04:17By July 2nd to 3rd, ground temperatures in Turpan could hit 50 degrees, close to breaking the national record.
04:23And we're not done yet.
04:26Behind this broken wall, a bigger switch is being flipped.
04:30El Nino is rapidly building in the Pacific.
04:33The ocean surface is warming across a vast area, and that shifts wind belts and rain bands globally.
04:39The last big El Nino made 2024 the hottest year ever recorded.
04:44This one is stronger.
04:46So this isn't just Europe's problem.
04:49It's not just Xinjiang's problem.
04:52It's one system, and you're standing inside it.
04:55The forecast is already out, northwest China, north China, and the Yellow Huai River region will see repeated 37 to
05:0339 degree days.
05:04Some places may hit 43 degrees.
05:08Typhoon season is also ramping up, July alone could see two or three systems affecting China.
05:14That bent wall is still moving east.
05:17And as it twists and stutters, the heat waves, the torrential rains, and the sudden severe storms you're experiencing this
05:24summer, many of them were pre-written 10,000 meters up, by a wind that lost its shape.
05:29What really unsettles scientists isn't this week's heat.
05:33It's that this wall is losing its shape more and more frequently.
05:36And as of today, nobody can tell you where it will bend next, or whose head that heat will land
05:42on.
05:43The only thing you can be sure of is this, heat doesn't disappear.
05:47It's just hiding somewhere else on the map, waiting in line.
05:51Waiting for its turn to find you.
