A heat dome is a weather pattern in which high-pressure systems trap hot air over a region, producing prolonged extreme heat. It is not a cyber threat by itself, but it matters to cyber security because the physical environment can affect the availability and reliability of digital systems.
Extended heat can stress data centers, network gear, power systems, batteries, and cooling equipment. When temperatures rise, failures become more likely, performance can degrade, and recovery can take longer. Attackers may exploit this pressure indirectly by timing disruptive activity when infrastructure is already strained, while defenders focus on resilience: redundant cooling, environmental monitoring, tested backup power, capacity planning, and incident response procedures that account for heat-related outages. In practice, a heat dome is a reminder that cyber defense depends on the stability of the facilities and utilities that keep systems running.