The heat dome that settled over California, broke records, and scorched most of California last week is creeping eastward, with some temperature relief in sight.
In the meantime, temperatures across the Golden State will remain slightly above average into April, according to the National Weather Service.
Through Sunday, high temperatures are expected to hover in the 80s in Sacramento, in the 70s and 80s in San Jose, and in the 80s and 90s in Modesto.
Highs in the 80s are expected in Los Angeles, Orange, and San Diego counties.
Where are the California hot spots
Most of San Bernardino and Riverside counties will remain in the 90s, with High Desert highs expected in the 80s and 90s.
After breaking a few records, the Low Desert will see high temperatures in the 90s, with a chance of reaching 100 on Friday.
Gregg Gallina, of the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center, said Monday that the heat dome has moved east.
He added that temperatures in the 90s are expected on Wednesday over the southern and central Plains. From one-quarter to one-third of the 48 continental states will be flirting with March records.
“Basically, the entire U.S. is going to be hot,” Gallina said. “The area of record temperatures is extremely large. That’s the thing that’s really bizarre.”
Heat dome happening across California
This heat dome — in which high pressure acts like a pot lid trapping hot air over a region — will leave Flagstaff, Arizona, with 11 or 12 straight days of temperatures higher than the city’s previous March record, said meteorologist Jeff Masters of Yale Climate Connections.
On Friday, March 20, four places in Arizona and California reached 112 degrees, smashing the record for the hottest March day in the continental U.S. by 4 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.
The 112-degree mark was only 1 degree shy of the hottest April day recorded in the Lower 48.
Nearly 180 U.S. locations, with data dating back to the 1960s or earlier, have tied or set new March records from California to Pennsylvania to South Carolina during this heat wave, the weather service stated.
Climatologist and weather historian, Maximiliano Herrera, said
states that recorded their hottest March day on record since the heat dome began, including:
Is relief in sight?
While warm days throughout the weekend are expected in California, the long-range forecast includes cooler temperatures, and even some rain and showers beginning next week.
Weather experts say the state’s snowpack was reported below normal, with less thatn 50% of the average across much of Northern California.
With above-normal temperatures and melting snow, resorts are likely to close shop earlier than expected.
Historically, the snowpack is at its deepest in April. But climate change is shifting runoff earlier, leaving less water trickling down the mountains in warmer months for homes, farms, fish, hydropower, and forests, according to Cal Matters.
“In an ideal world, you’d have your reservoir full right now, and this additional huge snowpack reservoir that we know will help replenish and provide more water supply,” said Levi Johnson, operations manager for the Central Valley Project, the massive federal water system that funnels northern California river water to the Central Valley and parts of the Bay Area.
This year, Johnson said, “we’re not going to have that.”
California’s reservoirs are in good shape, above historic averages, with many nearing capacity. But that summertime snowbank on the slopes of the Sierra Nevada is disappearing early and fast, dropping to 38% of average for mid-March statewide.
Daily Press reporter Rene Ray De La Cruz may be reached at RDeLaCruz@VVDailyPress.com. Follow him on X @DP_ReneDeLaCruz
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: California’s heat dome moves east, records broken, relief in sight
Reporting by Rene Ray De La Cruz, Palm Springs Desert Sun / Palm Springs Desert Sun
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