Fair weather now; heat wave coming
Pleasanton, other inland areas to see triple digits
Mason Gould couldn’t pick between a fried peanut butter cup or ice cream, so as beads of sweat dripped down the sides of the 11year-old’s face, his father, Chris, made the call for both of them.
“You can never go wrong with ice cream,” he said.
Temperatures crept into the upper 80s Thursday in many parts of the Bay Area, and the heat at the Alameda County Fair in Pleasanton was enough to force Mason, who lives in Dublin, to lick the sides of his waffle cone as the chocolate and vanilla swirl ice cream immediately started melting down the sides. He ran over to a picnic table that offered some reprieve from the blaring sun, before the father and son took part in festivities that included ring toss and a Ferris wheel ride.
Hotter days for the Bay Area, however, are still to come.
Searing temperatures are expected to hit most of the region Friday and Saturday, and some areas could break triple digits, forecasters said.
“It’s a gradual warm-up Thursday into Friday, but then Friday into Saturday — that’s when we are going to see the big jump,” said Matt Mehle, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Monterey.
The hottest areas will be mostly inland with Novato, Concord, Antioch, Morgan Hill, Livermore and Gilroy all expected to see triple digits, Mehle said.
The forecast is for high temperatures of 76 degrees on Friday and 84 degrees Saturday in San Francisco. Oakland is predicted to be a blazing 80 degrees Friday before jumping to 89 degrees Saturday.
San Jose and the South Bay should reach 90 degrees Friday before increasing to a smoldering 96 degrees Saturday.
“It might seem like extreme hot
and it’s going to be danger heat, but it’s not record breaking,” Mehle said.
A heat advisory was issued for Saturday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District issued Spare the Air alerts for Friday and Saturday.
“Now is a good time to check to find out what malls might be open,” Mehle said. “Places that have air conditioning — that could be a movie theater, that could be a library.”
In Pleasanton, temperatures are expected to jump almost 20 degrees into the triple digits on Friday and Saturday, forecasters said.
Meanwhile, the Alameda County Fair must go on.
The annual event will hold its “Red, White and Brew Fest” Saturday, and with the suds flowing it should yet again draw a fair-sized crowd.
On Thursday, the nearly 5,000 people who took a break from the daily grind munched on ice-cold sweets, oversized turkey legs and cheeseburgers, in between a few refreshing beverages.
Cesar Uresti took a seat in the shade and sipped a beer. The 42year-old Dixon resident was joined by his construction colleagues, who were waiting to go to the horse track.
“That’s where they’re going to feed us, hopefully not just hay,” Uresti said, laughing. He added that he’d already scarfed down a corn dog for breakfast when the crew first arrived.
Not far from where Uresti sat with the halfdozen other men, Greese Lynch was chasing after some of the 12 different types of butterflies at the SkyRiver Butterflies tent.
The 6-year-old stood beside her mother, Dena Lynch, who said the family has made it a tradition to come to the fair every year since Dena herself was a child growing up in Pleasanton.
The butterfly den was nestled nicely in the shade under a large canopy of trees, where misters kept things cool as children stood in awe of the fluttering orange, blue and white insects.
“Whoa, whoa, I got one,” Greese told her mother as a brown and blue butterfly landed on her finger.
Within seconds, a monarch butterfly landed on the girl’s shirt and Greese squealed with delight as her mother got her phone ready to take photos.
Her mother said Thursday’s timing was perfect to avoid the hottest days of the week.
“I think we are going to Sausalito on Saturday to escape the heat,” Dena Lynch said, just as three butterflies simultaneously landed on her tan baseball cap.
She stiffened and slowly lifted her phone, eyes wide as she broke out in a smile and attempted the selfie.