Uploaded August 2021 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
For story suggestions or custom animation requests, contact tips@nextanimation.com.tw. Visit archive.nextanimationstudio.com to view News Direct's complete archive of 3D news animations.
RESTRICTIONS: Broadcast: NO USE JAPAN, NO USE TAIWAN Digital: NO USE JAPAN, NO USE TAIWAN
The recent heat wave in the states of Oregon and Washington caused a lot of damage to roadways. It's now apparent that the governments of these states never imagined temperatures in their regions could soar to close to 48 degrees Celsius.
RUNDOWN SHOWS:
1. Show globe turning to US, zoom to Pacific Northwest region
2. Street scene in Portland, temperature rising, road shaking, road buckles upward at seam
3. Diagram view of road's concrete slabs with gaps, arrows show heat-expansion direction
4. Diagram: sun shines on slabs, thermometer shows increasing heat, slabs expand into gaps
5. Heat keeps increasing, thermometer rising, slabs push up, tremble, then explode at seam
6. Asphalt road cutaway, sun shines, thermometer rising, asphalt melting, truck wheels pressing grooves into soft asphalt
VOICEOVER (in English):
Newsweek reports that roads are buckling and breaking apart from the unprecedented hot weather that's been hitting the Pacific Northwest region of the U.S.
In the usually cool Portland, temperatures soared to 47 degrees Celsius on Monday 28 June.
Scientists say the problem is that Oregon's roadways were not designed to survive such heat.
These roadways are made of concrete slabs that contract in cold weather and expand in hot weather. The slabs were shaped with gaps between them, and these gaps are there to create room for the concrete when it expands.
However, these gaps are only big enough to make room for the kind of expansion that happens during normal temperature highs, and the recent heat wave created temperatures so high that the concrete slabs expanded so much that they pushed against each other, causing the slabs to break and buckle.
Roads that were made of asphalt, on the other hand, often became so hot that they became soft like toffee, and thus became deformed by large numbers of heavy vehicles driving over them.
SOURCES: Newsweek, The Verge, Washington Post
newsweek.com/oregon-roads-buckle-record-breaking-temperatures-descend-state-during-heat-wave-1604716
theverge.com/2021/7/5/22559961/heat-roads-washington-oregon-climate-infrastructure
washingtonpost.com/national/extreme-heat-wave-porland-seattle/2021/06/28/c88790d6-d82d-11eb-bb9e-70fda8c37057_story.html
***
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Next Animation Studio’s News Direct service provides daily, high-quality, informative 3D news animations that fill in for missing footage and help viewers understand breaking news stories or in-depth features on science, technology, and health.
Sign up for a free trial of News Direct's news animations at newsdirect.nextanimationstudio.com/trial
To subscribe to News Direct or for more info, please visit:
newsdirect.nextanimationstudio.com
For story suggestions or custom animation requests, contact tips@nextanimation.com.tw. Visit archive.nextanimationstudio.com to view News Direct's complete archive of 3D news animations.
RESTRICTIONS: Broadcast: NO USE JAPAN, NO USE TAIWAN Digital: NO USE JAPAN, NO USE TAIWAN
The recent heat wave in the states of Oregon and Washington caused a lot of damage to roadways. It's now apparent that the governments of these states never imagined temperatures in their regions could soar to close to 48 degrees Celsius.
RUNDOWN SHOWS:
1. Show globe turning to US, zoom to Pacific Northwest region
2. Street scene in Portland, temperature rising, road shaking, road buckles upward at seam
3. Diagram view of road's concrete slabs with gaps, arrows show heat-expansion direction
4. Diagram: sun shines on slabs, thermometer shows increasing heat, slabs expand into gaps
5. Heat keeps increasing, thermometer rising, slabs push up, tremble, then explode at seam
6. Asphalt road cutaway, sun shines, thermometer rising, asphalt melting, truck wheels pressing grooves into soft asphalt
VOICEOVER (in English):
Newsweek reports that roads are buckling and breaking apart from the unprecedented hot weather that's been hitting the Pacific Northwest region of the U.S.
In the usually cool Portland, temperatures soared to 47 degrees Celsius on Monday 28 June.
Scientists say the problem is that Oregon's roadways were not designed to survive such heat.
These roadways are made of concrete slabs that contract in cold weather and expand in hot weather. The slabs were shaped with gaps between them, and these gaps are there to create room for the concrete when it expands.
However, these gaps are only big enough to make room for the kind of expansion that happens during normal temperature highs, and the recent heat wave created temperatures so high that the concrete slabs expanded so much that they pushed against each other, causing the slabs to break and buckle.
Roads that were made of asphalt, on the other hand, often became so hot that they became soft like toffee, and thus became deformed by large numbers of heavy vehicles driving over them.
SOURCES: Newsweek, The Verge, Washington Post
newsweek.com/oregon-roads-buckle-record-breaking-temperatures-descend-state-during-heat-wave-1604716
theverge.com/2021/7/5/22559961/heat-roads-washington-oregon-climate-infrastructure
washingtonpost.com/national/extreme-heat-wave-porland-seattle/2021/06/28/c88790d6-d82d-11eb-bb9e-70fda8c37057_story.html
***
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Next Animation Studio’s News Direct service provides daily, high-quality, informative 3D news animations that fill in for missing footage and help viewers understand breaking news stories or in-depth features on science, technology, and health.
Sign up for a free trial of News Direct's news animations at newsdirect.nextanimationstudio.com/trial
To subscribe to News Direct or for more info, please visit:
newsdirect.nextanimationstudio.com
