Heat wave is coming to Southern California, with triple-digit temps in San Fernando Valley
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Meteorologists are projecting unusually high temperatures in Southern California this week, with the heat predicted to climb above 100 degrees in the San Fernando Valley and reach the 90s elsewhere.
After a balmy weekend, temperatures are expected to start rising Monday. “We’re looking at pretty widespread 80 to 90 degrees for highs” Monday across the Valley, said David Gomberg, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard, which covers Los Angeles County.
Temperatures will soar by midweek, hitting 103 degrees in Woodland Hills on Wednesday and 101 degrees on Thursday, the National Weather Service predicted.
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In downtown Los Angeles, meanwhile, temperatures are expected to climb from the low 80s on Monday to the mid-80s on Tuesday and finally to the low 90s on Wednesday, before dropping back to the high-80s on Thursday.
“I’d say Wednesday and Thursday are going to be the two hottest days,” Gomberg said. “Saturday is when things should get back to normal.”
The weather service expects to issue heat advisories, warning people to think twice if considering strenuous midday activity such as hiking.
“Also, the very old and little children are always going to be vulnerable to those heat events,” Gomberg said.
Tiffany Slaton, 28, an avid camper from Jeffersonville, Ga., had been missing in the Fresno County wilderness for almost three weeks when she was discovered Wednesday holed up in a cabin.
Temperatures in the Inland Empire, meanwhile, are expected to reach the mid- to upper 90s on Wednesday and Thursday. In inland Orange County cities such as Irvine and Anaheim, temperatures will hit the upper 80s and low 90s by midweek.
“Our highs will get back to the mid-80s by Saturday, which is pretty close to the climatological norm for late May,” said Dave Munyan, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in San Diego, which covers Orange County and the Inland Empire. “It’s not going to be as hot as the mini heat wave we had two weeks ago.”
He characterized the coming week as “abnormally warm, not record-breaking heat, but definitely something that could take some folks off guard because it’s May and they expect it to be cooler and cloudier.”
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