United States

Week-Long Heat Wave Continues

August 13, 2012; 12:10 PM

Today marks day eight of the heat wave over much of California, but it really has been a whole month of well above-normal temperatures away from the beaches.

For many of the valleys of southern California, today marks the eighth-straight day of triple-digit heat. Triple digits are not that uncommon this time of year. What is uncommon is that it persists this long without some sort of break. This is despite our computer models that showed some break in the hot weather from last week for early this week. However, the high pressure area has dominated, and it does not look like it is going to give up much the rest of the week. There might be a little drop in the temperatures after tomorrow, perhaps not quite getting to 100 in some of the valleys Wednesday and Thursday, but it is likely to stay well above normal. If it is shy of 100, it will be only by a couple to a few degrees. If anything, it will warm up a bit again Friday and Saturday. The same can be said for the coastal valleys of Central California and the Central Valley. The high heat continues all week even if temperatures drop off a little at midweek. No real relief for anyone.

As I earlier said, this has been a month of heat for California. Below is a chart of the departure from normal of temperatures up through midnight last night. You will notice quite the difference from the immediate coast to interior areas.

All of my friends gripe factor is reaching a feverish pitch (no pun intended), and it looks like I will not be a very popular person this week either. Oh, the woes of being a weatherman.

The views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of AccuWeather, Inc. or AccuWeather.com