Weeklong heat wave in Southern California is expected to peak Saturday

A heat wave that’s expected to push temperatures into the triple digits will bake Southern California through the weekend, the National Weather Service said.

The high temperatures will come filled with monsoonal moisture from a system sweeping over Arizona and Texas, giving the heat wave a humid, sticky feel, NWS meteorologist Kathy Hoxsie said.

“This is a reminder that we’re in summer, and this is exactly the time of year to expect our hotter temperatures,” Hoxsie said.

Temperatures will continue to climb until they peak Saturday, when forecasters predict it could hit 106 degrees in Lancaster and 105 in Palmdale. Temperatures in downtown Los Angeles will peak in the lower 90s over the weekend, the agency predicted.

The heat wave is expected to last through July 27, Hoxsie said.

Thanks to five years of drought and an underwhelming El Niño, there won’t be the requisite heat and low humidity that would trigger a Red Flag warning. But the risk of fires remains high nonetheless.

A small brush fire off the 101 Freeway and Cahuenga Boulevard on Tuesday afternoon quickly spread across 18 acres and pushed toward Hollywood hillside homes.

It took hundreds of firefighters hours to get the flames in check, and for a short while, some residents were under a voluntary evacuation order.

For those looking for relief from the heat, the beach is always an option — except in Long Beach, where a 2.4 million-gallon sewage spill has closed miles of coastline between Long Beach and Seal Beach until Thursday at the earliest.

Long Beach officials need two consecutive days of clean water samples before reopening the beach.

For breaking California news, follow @JosephSerna on Twitter.

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