Parts of Southern California witness hottest day ever recorded
10:40 p.m. update
As predicted, new daily, monthly and all-time record highs were set throughout Southern California on Friday because of a monster heat dome sprawled over the region.
The temperature at UCLA soared to 111 degrees, the hottest ever recorded there, surpassing the previous record of 109 degrees, set Sept. 20, 1939, the National Weather Service reported. Records at UCLA date back to 1933.
While the temperature at UCLA set an all-time record, the high in downtown Los Angeles, 108 degrees, fell short of its all-time mark of 113 from September 2010. Still, the 108-degree reading crushed the July 6 daily record of 94, set in 1992.
In addition to UCLA, other locations that set all-time records in Southern California include:
- Hollywood Burbank Airport, 114 degrees.
- Van Nuys Airport, 117 degrees.
- Ramona, 117 degrees.
- Santa Ana, 114 degrees.
- Riverside, 118 degrees (tying record from 1925).
The National Weather Service offices serving Los Angeles and San Diego produced the handy summary tables below, which highlight a number of the notable records set:
Original post from 1:30 p.m.
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Record-crushing heat is likely in Southern California through Saturday from the same deadly heat dome that has torched the central and eastern United States and parts of Canada over the past week.
Friday “will be one for the record books,” the National Weather Service office serving Los Angeles wrote in its morning discussion. “Almost all if not all of the daily records will fall today. It is likely that several monthly records will fall and its possible that 1 or 2 all time records will be made.”
Specifically, the Weather Service said the all-time high temperatures of 113 in Burbank and 117 in Woodland Hills are in jeopardy.
In downtown Los Angeles, the temperature is forecast to soar to 106 degrees Friday, obliterating the previous record for the date of 94, set in 1992. But the all-time high of 113 degrees, set in September 2010, should not be threatened.
The city and much of the surrounding area is under an excessive heat warning through Saturday, where the Weather Service expects triple-digit heat “everywhere” away from the coastline.
The blistering heat is forecast to continue Saturday before very slowly easing Sunday through early next week.
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The excessively hot conditions combined with very low humidity and gusty winds would allow any brush fires ignited to spread rapidly. Most of Southwest California is under a red flag warning, the alert for dangerous fire weather.
The heat dome affecting California is the same one that brought record heat to Denver and Burlington, Vt., and is to blame for at least 54 heat-related deaths in southern Quebec. In recent days, after focusing over the eastern half of the United States, it has shifted westward and, in some locations, its intensity is record-setting.
On his blog, Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA, said the clockwise circulation around the heat dome and resulting offshore winds will force air down mountain slopes adjacent to coastal areas, compressing and heating the air. “This will likely be a high-impact and memorable heat event,” he said.
Should all-time highs be set in Southern California, it will join a parade of others established all over the Northern Hemisphere over the past 10 days, the most recent being what has probably been the hottest temperature ever recorded in Africa.
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