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Heat wave forecast to hit Southern California just in time for Labor Day weekend

Michael Valdez swings a strand of seaweed with his son Michael Jr. while daughter Maddie jumps over it at the beach.
Michael Valdez from Culver City swings a strand of seaweed with his son Michael Jr. while daughter Maddie jumps in the water at Manhattan Beach in May.
(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
By Laura NewberryStaff Writer 
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Temperatures are expected to hit triple digits in some areas of Southern California this week as a heat wave envelops the region — just in time for Labor Day weekend.

Temperatures are forecast to be an oppressive 10 to 15 degrees above average starting Wednesday and lasting through Sept. 5, according to Mike Wofford, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard.

PACOIMA, CA - JUNE 16, 2021 - - Lizette Romo Gonzalez, 31, wipes the sweat off her son's brow while trying to cool off in front of their unit at the San Fernando Gardens Public Housing where temperatures rose to 94 degrees in Pacoima on June 16, 2021. Gonzalez lives in the unit with her husband and five children. She said it was so hot recently that she put all her children in a bathtub of ice cubes and water. That didn't go so well and all the children came down with colds. It was the last time she tried that method. As with other climate-related disasters, the consequences are hugely unequal falling disproportionately on poor communities, like The Gardens, where trees are scarce and residents don't have air conditioning or can't afford to run it. Apartments in public housing do not come with air conditioning and residents have to buy their own, use fans or buy swamp coolers. The families that do have air conditioning use them sparingly to keep their energy bills affordable. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

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The mercury is expected to hit the mid-90s in downtown L.A., and range from 100 to 110 degrees in the San Fernando and Antelope valleys during this period. At the same time, humidity levels are expected to drop significantly, increasing the risk of fire danger.

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“This is our hottest time of year,” Wofford said. “When we get big heat waves, this is very typically when we would see them.”

Sunday was a cooler-than-normal August day in the Southland, with temperatures ranging in the mid- to high 70s. But the brief reprieve from the heat is likely to be broken by a strong high-pressure system moving into the Southwest early this week.

“We also have a much weaker on-shore flow,” Wofford said, “which normally brings us a cool sea breeze.”

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Laura Newberry

Laura Newberry is a former reporter with the lifestyle section at the Los Angeles Times. She wrote Group Therapy, a weekly newsletter that answers readers’ questions about mental health. She previously worked on The Times’ education team and was a staff reporter at both the Reading Eagle in Eastern Pennsylvania and MassLive in Western Massachusetts. She graduated from UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism and also has a master’s degree in social work from the University of Central Florida.

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