If you’re a San Diegan, then you already know it gets hot in Santee. But on Monday, the city in San Diego’s East County was so warm, the National Weather Service called it the “hottest location in the United States.”
The agency made the announcement just after 5:30 p.m. Monday – after sunset – saying Santee’s high of 97 degrees on Nov. 16, 2020, had earned the community the distinction of being THE hottest place in the country.
For comparison, NBC 7 meteorologist Sheena Parveen said the normal high in Santee this time of year is mid to low-70s, so the 97-degree mark on Monday was about 20 degrees above normal for the area.
But Santee wasn’t the only San Diego spot experiencing a little mid-November heat.
“All of our inland valleys and coast were unseasonably warm by 10 to 15 degrees on Monday,” Parveen said.
In a preliminary report released at 4:25 p.m. Monday, the NWS said some parts of our region broke highest maximum temperature records for Nov. 16.
San Diego hit a high of 90 degrees, breaking the record of 86 set previously in 2008.
Vista hit a high of 89, breaking the record of 84 degrees set in 2002. Chula Vista hit a high of 86 degrees Monday, breaking the 2005 record of 83 for that date. Meanwhile, Escondido hit 94 degrees, three above the 91 recorded in 1949. Ramona hit 90 degrees, breaking the 87 degrees recorded in 2008.
Parveen said an offshore wind can be linked to the warm-up at the top of this week but the temps should now return to more of a normal pattern.
“Now our winds will turn more onshore as a series of weather systems pass to our north and with the onshore flow and cooler air masses, our temperatures will cool down for the rest of the week and into the weekend,” she explained.
Local
Tuesday will remain unseasonably warm, according to the First Alert Forecast, but won’t be as warm as Monday. Over the next few days, the inland valleys will be in the mid-70s and, by the weekend, in the low-70s.
But despite the cooler temps, Parveen said there’s no rain in the forecast, for now.
