While the groundhog in Pennsylvania has predicted six more weeks of winter and the foxes are in awe fall from the trees in Florida, Southern California he works hard.
A mid-winter heat wave has descended on much of the region and temperatures are expected to rise 20 degrees above normal next week.
The summer-like heat is due to high pressure in the upper atmosphere that passes over the San Francisco Bay Area and into the Pacific Northwest. Meteorologists with the National Weather Service expect it to last through the end of the week and possibly into Super Bowl Sunday.
After a cool Monday in the LA area, another stretch of warm weather could bring near-record highs Wednesday — possibly reaching 90 degrees along the inland coast and valleys of LA and Ventura counties, according to the weather service.
The thermometer is expected to rise above 85 degrees in much of Southern California on Wednesday, according to forecasters.
(National Weather Service)
This week’s high pressure is expected to move from Canada to southern Alaska, said Carol Ciliberti, a meteorologist with the weather service. “It’s pretty amazing.”
Moderate Santa Ana winds, which could bring gusts of up to 50 mph to the mountains, could add some heat to the area.
While the city of Los Angeles and Los Angeles International Airport tied the highest temperatures every day on Friday, other parts of the United States. set new low records every day.
About half of Americans were under cold weather advisories and extreme cold warnings on Sunday. Frigid Arctic air, winter storms and a “bomb storm” dumped heavy snow in New England, caused flight cancellations in North Carolina and tested the limits of power systems in the South.
Bomb storms usually occur when Arctic air moves south and collides with warm air, creating a storm that rapidly intensifies as its pressure suddenly drops – or “bombs.”
It is common in the Northeastern US This one differs in how far south it reaches.
Along the West Coast, air from the high pressure shelf heats up as it sinks. The same phenomenon heats the Santa Ana winds as air from high above the Great Basin descends and rushes out to sea.
Over the next week, it will result in temperatures reaching about 15 degrees above normal in the Bay Area, and around 20 degrees above normal in Southern California. The event, which will be held in the Bay Area, is expected to take place on Super Bowl Sunday, which will be held in Santa Clara.
“We’re going to see if the high pressure really continues,” said Rachel Kennedy, a meteorologist with the weather service.
On game day, temperatures are still expected to be in the upper 60s in the Bay Area, but residents (and fans) may see fog that morning, Kennedy said.
Despite the hot and windy weather in Southern California, the vegetation is still holding enough moisture from the last rain that there is little danger of a major wildfire, said David Gomberg, a meteorologist with the weather service.
“You can still get small fires,” Gomberg said. But it is less likely to spread in a large fire because of that moisture.
Meteorologists are working with fire agencies to gauge fire danger, Gomberg said. Fire stations take measurements of plant moisture in the field and transmit the results to the weather service every two to four weeks.
Weather service models show little rain in store for the region next week, with temperatures dropping to 5 to 10 degrees above average — though Ciliberti noted that without a crystal ball it was hard to say exactly when the humidity and cooler temperatures would arrive.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
