After a cool and cloudy weekend, Southern California can expect the heat to return next week, particularly in the interior, valley and desert areas, forecasts say.
The heat wave will likely be the hottest of the season, with some areas seeing temperatures rise 20 degrees or more, said Eric Boldt, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard. Some inland areas could see triple-digit temperatures as early as the middle of the week.
Coastal regions and most of the Los Angeles metropolitan area “will not be as hot, more like 10 degrees above normal,” he said. For example, while the temperature in downtown Los Angeles is normally around 75 degrees this time of year, temperatures are expected to approach 85 by the end of next week.
By the weekend, cooling offshore winds will create a coastal eddy that will spin low clouds and fog inland during the evenings and mornings in a typical seasonal pattern, with temperatures ranging from the 60s to 70 degrees along the coast. The first few days of June are the foggiest time of year in Southern California, but that’s expected to change dramatically in the days ahead.
Forecasts from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for the next six to 10 days show above-normal temperatures across the West. Most of Southern California is expected to experience above normal temperatures during this time.
High pressure in the eastern Pacific — where it has been unusually strong and persistent for the past two years — is expected to move over California late next week, then southwest and progressively east, said Alex Tardy, a meteorologist. of the weather service in San Diego.
The high-pressure system is expected to increase as it moves inland from Northern California and westward, according to forecasters, with high temperatures rising from 10 degrees above normal Tuesday to 20 degrees by above normal by the end of the week. The Central Valley can expect triple-digit heat on Thursday and Friday.
But before the heat kicks in, Northern California has a chance for widespread showers.
The latest data from the US Drought Monitor released Thursday.
(Paul Duginski / Los Angeles Times)
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Any rain is welcome, but it would take a lot more than a few passing showers to make a dent in California’s current drought. The most recent data from the US Drought Monitor, released Thursday, shows that about 12% of the state is classified as exceptionally dry.
Most of the area in this worst category is in a makau—a hook-shaped piece of land—that covers the southern Sierra Nevada and wraps around the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley. Another narrow strip is at the eastern end of San Bernardino County, on the border with Nevada.
Nearly half of California, 48%, is in extreme drought, the second worst category. Another 38% are in severe drought, and 2.3% in moderate drought, mostly in the western half of San Diego County. The remaining 0.14% of the state is considered abnormally dry.
In most of the West, the drought is expected to continue or worsen through the end of the summer.
(Paul Duginski / Los Angeles Times)
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Except for parts of the Pacific Northwest, all of the continental United States west of the 100th meridian, as well as more than half of Texas and parts of the central and southern Plains, are in areas where that the drought develops, continues or worsens until the end of August. Southern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico are expected to improve as a monsoon is forecast this summer.
High pressures, like those expected to affect the region next week, remove the marine layer, the heat shield that usually protects the California coast from the force of the sun when it is highest in the sky (the solstice). summer is June 21). Without this stratus cloud sunscreen, temperatures are likely to rise along with evaporation that sucks moisture out of soils and vegetation and increases fire danger.
There is an element of uncertainty about how much high pressure will be present in the atmosphere, heating the air late next week in Southern California, according to Miguel Miller, another meteorologist with the weather service in San Diego.
Beneath the ridge of high pressure that extends westward from the eastern Pacific, models show an inverted low-pressure trough approaching the Baja California coast. Rising air from this low pressure system could weaken the prevailing high pressure enough to maintain a slightly more robust marine layer to the west of the mountains.
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