The Bay Area region could experience triple-digit temperatures going into the Labor Day weekend, as a high pressure ridge that originated at the Four Corners continues to build and expand over Nevada and into California.
The conditions have prompted the National Weather Service to issue excessive heat warnings for all of the Bay Area and the Central Coast beginning Saturday and extending through Monday.
The weather patterns will create "on-shore winds that compress the marine layer to the point where the marine layer really doesn't exist," NWS meteorologist Braden Burdock said. "Once that happens, the thermometer just goes up and up."
And up, and up, and up.
Temperatures in the inland East Bay and areas of the South Bay are expected to start rising Wednesday, with high temperatures of 97 degrees expected in Brentwood — the hottest spot in Contra Costa County — as well as 92 in Concord and 90 in Walnut Creek. Livemore is expected to be Alameda County's hottest place at 92. Morgan Hill is also expected to reach 90 degrees, while San Jose will see temperatures as high as 88.
Those temperatures, as well as others through the non-coastal areas of the region, are expected to increase by 5-8 degrees Thursday as the marine layer begins to dissipate and winds change direction and move toward the ocean. And heat wave is forecast to peak Monday, with temperatures forecast at 110 degrees in some areas and higher than 105 degrees elsewhere. Even typically cooler areas, like Oakland and San Francisco, will see temperatures in the upper 70s and 80s.
The air quality in the area is expected to be moderately healthy, according to a forecast by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District. Moderately healthy air would bring air-quality index readings between 51-100.
The heat comes as the calendar winds down on what forecasters have called a pretty mild summer. The region has seen some heat blips but nothing that has lasted so song with such hot temperatures.
"We've been very fortunate," Murdock said. "Sometimes, we see events like this in the spring and summer. But the pattern this summer hasn't been particularly dynamic, and we've seen most of the extremes to the north (in Oregon and Washington). Of course, this is the time of year where we can see this pattern set it a bit more often. In that sense, it's not that unusual."
Climate scientist and weather expert Daniel Swain wrote on social media that the heat wave may be "prolonged, dangerous and almost certainly record-breaking."
Cooling centers were expected to be available for people in Santa Clara, Contra Costa and Alameda counties. Fire crews will do some adjusting to cope with the heat.
"We've made some adjustments to make sure that the crews get their duties done early in the morning, so they're not in the sun unnecessarily," Livermore-Pleasanton Fire Deputy Chief Jason Solak said.
In Contra Costa County, fire officials have made staffing and strategic adjustments, so that additional ambulance drivers and paramedics are available, along with more fire crews.
Fire officials also encouraged people to check in with their neighbors to make sure they're OK in the heat. People should bring their pets indoors and have an alternate plan in case they lose power.
"Everything is the storm of the century, and we don't get too many storms here," Contra Costa Fire Protection District spokesman Steve Hill said, referring to the heat as the storm. "I guess this one is the storm of the millennium."
As of Tuesday morning, the California ISO, which oversees the state's power grid operation, had not issued a Flex Alert, which are issued when the state needs people to conserve energy to avoid power outages.
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