The San Diego Fire-Rescue Department will have an extra helicopter crew on duty and more personnel to respond to wildfires as temperatures skyrocket this weekend.
Summer arrives with a blast this weekend. San Diego temperatures are expected to soar., Art, music and singing nuns, all ahead. This is KPBS Midday Edition. I'm Maureen Cavanaugh. It's Friday, June 17. Our top story, after weeks of cool nights and mild gray days, San Diegans should prepare for a weather shock over the weekend and next week. Just as the season changes, our temperatures will rise. Forecasters say areas could see record-breaking heat from Sunday until Tuesday. Joining me is Alex Tardy, warning coordination meteorologist with the National Weather Service in San Diego. How much will temperatures be rising in the next few days? You make a good point about May and June, it's been on the cool side. This is our second heat wave, this one is in-store to deliver more, in the way of hot temperatures. In this case, much hotter than we saw in the prior heat waves. If you live in Ramona, you will get up to around 108 degrees. If you lived along the coast, your model -- more likely to see readings around 90 on Sunday and Monday, tapering off by Tuesday. What's causing this change? This time of year we tend to see upper level, type pressure. It's typically normal, in this case, the dome of high pressure is strong. Strong enough that it's making meteorologist and climatologists say how powerful it is. It's unusual in the magnitude and the coverage of this system. It's just developing, as we speak and it will expand to the weekend. San Diego Fire Chief, Brian Fennessy spoke about the heat wave and the areas of highest risk for brushfire. There's no fire history up there, we cannot find any history of fire in that community, that brushes very old. Mission Valley, a lot of dead brush, Scripps Ranch, black mountain, those areas that burned in 2003 and 2007. That was San Diego Fire Chief, Brian Fennessy. Alex, will this heat also bring low humidity? Yes. This time of year, we are not getting what we call the monsoon, which brings in all the humidity. Initially, this heat wave. This weekend, and into Monday will be a dry but intense heat the dry heat allows you to cool off at night, your overnight lows are lower, then the daytime highs really sore. Tuesday and Wednesday the humidity will increase. Will there be a red flag warning this weekend? No. These are elevated fire conditions, because of the high temperatures. Fires can burn well. We don't have the wind component, the Santa Anna wind or any wind that will meet the red flag criteria. Doesn't mean there won't be locally high winds. The Ridge of high pressure that's developing, is that anything like a ridiculously resilient Ridge that kept our temperatures so high last year? It is part of that, each year the atmosphere tends to reach things out to northern different. It's not the same, what's feeding this high pressure system is a five-year drought. Last year the desert Southwest was very dry, even drier than some parts of Southern California. Without this rain, and this five-year drought, these high pressure system's feed off and make them stronger. It's about a measurement of 600 600 -- 601. Most high pressure system's are not that strong. The last time we've seen this was 2013. A silver lining, I think, if I'm reading correctly is that ocean temperatures have cooled down from last year. You are correct. One silver lining is ocean temperatures in the Baja region are several degrees cooler since last year. It will help us cool down a little bit better at night and that local humidity that gets added from those almost tropical warm waters that we have last year, it will be less humid, still intense, dangerous heat during the day. What's the long-range outlook for summer? We are expecting another hot summer. It's on the heels of 14 and 2015 where on paper, the hottest summers on record since modern records began in 1880, we don't expect a repeat of the hottest summerlike 2014 and 2015, it could be a top 10 summer in terms of average temperatures from June through September. You'll notice on your energy bill, your comfort level and outdoor activities. The summer is young, we have an even declared the first day of summer yet. That's on Monday. I've been speaking with Alex Tardy, he is warning coordination meteorologist with National Weather Service San Diego.
The National Weather Service in San Diego on Friday issued an excessive heat warning for the inland valley areas Sunday through Tuesday. That warning remains in effect up to Wednesday for the mountains and deserts.
Temperatures on Sunday and Monday could exceed record levels, according to the weather service. Highs are predicted to reach 100 to 107 degrees inland, 80 to 95 degrees on the coast and 115 to 121 degrees in the deserts.
Fire Chief Brian Fennessy has ordered the department's second helicopter to be available during the upcoming heat wave. It was to be put into use full-time starting next month, but officials moved the date up due to anticipated high temperatures and dry fuel conditions increasing the risk of fires, according to a statement from the department.
Fennessy said January’s pounding El Niño rains sprouted an abundance of grass and wildflowers that are now dried to a crisp.
"That brush out there is dead," Fennessy told KPBS. "We now have the potential for a rapid-moving, large fire."
Nearly the entire county is at risk for fire, he warned, but especially communities along overgrown hillsides and canyons.
"Certainly the Mt. Soledad community causes us concern," Fennessy said. "There’s no fire history up there. We go back 100 years and we cannot find any history of fire in that community."
Fennessy also named Mission Valley and Scripps Ranch as high risk regions.
The city's lifeguards are anticipating large crowds at the beach this weekend.
"At the beach, as elsewhere during hot weather, drink lots of water," reads a statement from the city of San Diego. "Wear sunscreen and reapply it often. Even if your sunscreen says it is water-resistant, dermatologists say it is only effective for about an hour."
The statement also says water temperature is expected to be about 66 degrees.
“The upcoming heat wave is potentially dangerous because the weather pattern is usually (a) strong dome of warm air over the Southwest,” Alex Tardy, a warning coordination meteorologist with the National Weather Service in San Diego, told KPBS Midday Edition on Friday. “High temperatures could approach all-time values for June and possibly for the entire historical summer period in some areas.”
