Record-breaking temperatures to hit the Southland
A jogger makes his way along the Santa Fe Dam on Thursday in Irwindale.
Unseasonably hot temperatures in Southern California are expected to break records over the next two days and bring high surf, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Temperatures will reach 91 degrees in downtown Los Angeles on Thursday and Friday.
As high pressure builds over the region and offshore winds develop, a hot air mass will push temperatures up in Southern California.
In Burbank, temperatures will be one to two degrees warmer than the record of 90 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.
Another city expected to feel record-breaking heat is Paso Robles. Temperatures will reach 88 degrees Thursday and 90 on Friday, slashing the record of 83.
By Friday, forecasters say, the hot temperatures could also break records for the date in Long Beach, Palmdale, Ojai and Santa Maria.
The record-breaking heat signals a three-month trend of above-normal temperatures for the next three months, forecasters say.
According to the latest U.S. drought report, dry weather worsened or maintained the drought in California, and reduced mountain snowpacks over much of the West.
While mountain ranges in Northern California received more than an inch of rain this week, the rainfall fell short of supplying any significant moisture to relieve the drought, according to meteorologist Eric Luebehusen of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
In California’s San Joaquin Valley and the Cascade Range of the Pacific Northwest, water-year precipitation averaged 30% to 50% of normal.
The warmer temperatures will bring strong surf and dangerous rip currents this week to beaches in Los Angeles and Ventura counties, NWS meteorologist Stuart Seto said.
“Right when it’s getting hot, we tell you that you can’t go to the beach,” he said.
Strong swells are expected to thrash south-facing beaches, bringing 3- to 6-foot surf south of Point Conception and 4- to 8-foot surf along the Central Coast.
The potential for rip currents, beach erosion and sneaker waves is high, Seto said.
But the heat wave should be temporary. Cooler temperatures are expected Saturday and Sunday with highs in the 80s, which Seto said is still 10 degrees above normal for this time of year.
-- Veronica Rocha, Los Angeles Times