Thursday was hotter than yesterday, and Friday could be hotter still. By the end of Thursdaym we should see a number of records or near-record-breaking temperatures around the county as coastal highs rise into the 80s and valley temps top 100 for the second day in a row.
El Cajon, Ramona, Alpine and the Wild Animal Park all hit 100-plus on Wednesday. They were hotter than that Thursday, with a number of other spots hitting triple digits before noon, including Rancho Penequitos, Otay Mesa's Brown Field, Miramar MCAS, Rancho Bernardo and La Mesa. There are others that are in the high 90s and will unquestionably finish the day above the century mark.
Yes, of course the deserts are also in the 100s -- that goes without saying. In fact, Borrego Springs climbed to 109 Wednesday and is expected to top out around 115 on Friday.
The heat wave is unwelcome by just about anyone not sitting on the sand at the beach or in the water nearby. Until now it has been a relatively mild August, but now the heat is on and firefighters are on alert, gearing up, increasing staffing just in case. Wildfires are already burning north of Los Angeles, and, while we're not getting the winds we do during a bad Santa Ana event, the high heat, low humidity and abundant, dry fuel all combine to give us a high potential for the same happening here.
If you’re in the North County or driving down Interstate-5 today, you might smell some residual smoke from fires burning on Camp Pendleton.
Some of our firefighting resources are heading north to help out with fires. Two crews left Wednesday night for a new fire burning in Monterey, and five additional engines left Thursday morning for a fire burning in the Angeles National Forest.
Thanks to low pressure moving down the coast, we should see at least a little relief over the weekend, with temperatures dropping a couple of degrees on both Saturday and Sunday. Even so high temperatures will still be above normal for the last weekend of August.
