Western Heat, Fire Risk to Diminish This Weekend

By Brian Thompson, Meteorologist

May 16,2014; 11:04PM,EDT

 

 

After a string of record-breaking high temperatures in much of California, a cooldown this weekend will help lower the risk of wildfires.
For Los Angeles and San Diego, Thursday will likely turn out to be the hottest day of the heat wave.
San Diego set a new record high on Thursday of 97 degrees, making it the fourth-straight day that the city either tied or set a new record high temperature.
Downtown Los Angeles also set a new record high on Thursday, topping out at 102 degrees.

An onshore flow will become increasingly stronger through Saturday. This will knock out most of the heat along the coast, but temperatures will still be a bit above average for the middle of May.

Big Cooldown Coming by the Weekend

Location	Actual High Thu. (Fahrenheit)	Forecast High Sun. (Fahrenheit)
Los Angeles	102	75
San Diego	97	69
Sacramento, Calif.	97	77
San Francisco	84	65
Portland, Ore.	83	64
Seattle	80	62

Afternoon high temperatures Saturday will be 20 to 30 degrees lower than during the peak of the heat wave from San Francisco to San Diego.
As the wind diminishes and the humidity levels come up this weekend, the threat for new wildfires will lessen.
Firefighters should also be able to get a much better handle on the fires that are already burning. This is especially true across San Diego County, where a State of Emergency has been declared after raging fires burned nearly 9,000 acres and forced thousands out of their homes.

The heat that has shattered records in California has even reached the Pacific Northwest, where Portland, Oregon, set a record high of 91 degrees Wednesday. Temperatures in the Northwest will drop significantly by the weekend with showers returning as well.
RELATED:
San Diego Area Fires Force Evacuations, Destroy Homes
Ken Clark's Western Weather Blog
Forecast Temperature Maps
Runners heading to the Blaze the Beach Marathon in Long Beach, California, on Sunday will be happy to see the heat break. Temperatures much of the day will be in the 60s, a far cry from Thursday afternoon, when the high will be near 100.
This break in the heat will last into early next week across the West, with temperatures remaining close to average.
Content contributed by Andy Mussoline, AccuWeather Meteorologist

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Western Heat, Fire Risk to Diminish This Weekend - prepperpodcast.com/western-heat-f… pic.twitter.com/KbeFbi6LFR

May 15

Greg Miller

Murder_Miller

I feel so bad for everyone on San Diego. California can not catch a break on the wild fires

1h

Matthew R. Albanese

Matt_Albanese

After record-breaking heat across much of California this week, temps will cool down this weekend! Will help to lower risk of wildfires!

53m