Southern Scorcher
6/20/2008 4:45 PM
The blistering heat will continue to bake the Southwest through the weekend, while warm air pushes into the northern Rockies. Meanwhile, a marine
flow will moderate the temperature along the immediate Pacific coast.
The
Southwest Regional News story reports that dangerous heat
will continue Saturday from the central valley of California to Texas.
Excessive heat warnings are in effect from Southern California to the
Desert Southwest.
Death Valley, Calif. reached a high of 120 degrees Thursday, while a number of daily temperature records in California were broken or tied:
- Palm Springs: 116° (tied record from 1989)
- Thermal: 118° (old record 114° in 1968)
- Woodland Hills: 109° (old record 105° in 1989)
- Ramona: 102° (tied record from 1989)
As of 3:00 p.m. PDT Friday, the temperature at Thermal had already broken the previous record high of 116 degrees set in 1990 with a 118-degree
reading. It was a similar story at Riverside, Calif., early Friday afternoon with a record-breaking 108 degrees as of 3:00 p.m. At noon Friday, the
temperature had climbed to 96 degrees in downtown Los Angeles, but was still well short of the record of 106 degrees set in 1973. Santa Maria broke
their all-time record high of 108 degrees, first set on October 4, 1927 with a temperature of 110 degrees and San Luis Obispo also broke their
all-time high of 110 degrees set on September 2, 1955 with a reading of 113 degrees.
Marine air will result in cool temperatures along the West Coast, while heat will push into the Northwest interior and Intermountain West.
Temperatures Saturday will reach the 80s in the mountains of Montana, but cooler spreading in from coastal Washington and Oregon will reach western
Montana late in the weekend.
The heat across the Desert Southwest will ease somewhat next week as the jet stream shifts a bit to the south and east.
Story by Accuweather.com Expert Senior Meteorologist Alex Sosnowski
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