Weather service extends heat advisory through Thursday.
After a Sunday that saw heat records topple all over the Bay Area, folks can expect warm temperatures through most of the week, though not nearly as drastic, forecasters say.
“It’s not going to be as hot, but it’s still going to be very warm,” said Charles Bell, a Monterey-based meteorologist with the National Weather Service. “We have a strong ridge of high-pressure overhead that will continue the next several days.”
As a result, the weather service has extended a heat advisory through Thursday evening.
People in the region in should plan for temperatures hovering around 90 degrees for most parts of the Bay Area, said Bell, adding that the ridge responsible for the high heat is expected to move east and dissipate Friday.
That will bring more moderate summer temperatures — in the 80s — for the weekend and into next week, he said.
But the relief will be temporary, as Bell expects the second half of the summer to be “warmer than usual.”
“This is the time of the year for maximum solar heating, with the sun angles,” Bell said. “Now and in the next few months, we’ll have very warm periods.
Monday saw a high of 94 degrees in San Jose, 81 in Oakland and 77 in downtown San Francisco, said Anna Schneider, a meteorologist with the weather service. Livermore and Concord were among the warmest spots in the Bay Area at 104 and 103, respectively.
As for the milestone temperatures recorded for Sunday, when San Jose, Oakland, San Francisco and a handful of other cities saw their June 18 records fall, Bell urged against
drawing significant conclusions from the occurrence.
“Breaking monthly records is more notable,” Bell said. “Usually we get one to two events every year where we do break records.”
He also noted that the heat probably felt more dramatic because it was preceded by unusually low temperatures for the time of year.
“We had quite a long stretch of cooler than normal weather,” he said.
To ease the strain on the state’s electricity grid, the California Independent System Operator Corp. has issued a Flex Alert from 2 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday. Residents are urged to turn off all unnecessary lights, avoid using major appliances and set air conditioners to 78 degrees or higher to help avoid possible power outages.