Residents brace themselves as S.F. sets all-time mark
An epic heat wave that swept through the Bay Area on Friday smashed records — including the all-time recorded high in San Francisco — and promises more of the same on Saturday, with places like Livermore and Concord perhaps seeing the mercury rise even higher.
The usual relief found along the coast during Bay Area heat waves was nowhere to be found Friday, as cities that hug the water matched, or even eclipsed, inland areas where 100-degree temperatures are common.
It was downtown San Francisco that, somewhat unexpectedly, set the most prominent high, recording 106 degrees by late Friday afternoon. That eclipsed the city’s all-time-high reading of 103 degrees, set in 2000. The predicted high in San Francisco on Friday had been 88.
“This was the highest reading since records were first kept there in 1874,” National Weather Service meteorologist Duane Dykema said Friday afternoon. “That’s the oldest climate station in California. That’s a significant record.”
Many other cities set records for the date; Santa Cruz hit 105 Friday, ahead of the 102 set on Sept. 1, 1955; Salinas’ 103 shattered that city’s Sept. 1 previous high by 12 degrees; and Gilroy hit 107 Friday, passing the city’s Sept. 1, 1976, mark of 102. Three airports set records; San Francisco International’s 104 degrees tied an all-time record; and San Jose’s 107
and Oakland’s 101 set September records.
Why so many high totals close to the water? There was more of an offshore flow than anticipated, Dykema said, carrying more heat from inland areas westward toward the ocean. Richmond hit 100 degrees, and even usually chilly Half Moon Bay was up to 88 degrees.
“On the coast, it will be hard to match these numbers again (Saturday),” he said.
Meanwhile, some inland spots that are traditional Bay Area hot spots were sweltering. Livermore hit 114 degrees about 5 p.m. Friday, just shy of its alltime high of 115, and Concord reached 109. Antioch, usually among the region’s hottest cities, hit 104.
Walnut Creek didn’t officially crest the century mark until late Friday afternoon, at 101.
Smoke from wildfires in Northern California and Oregon, which drifted into parts of the Bay Area on Thursday, permeated the entire Bay Area by Friday morning. The Bay Area Air Quality Management District issued “Spare the Air” alerts for Friday and Saturday. Several Bay Area school districts decided to cancel, postpone or push back start times of football games. Area schools took extra precautions, limiting outdoor recesses and afterschool programs to air-conditioned spaces.
“It’s possible that this weekend we will have unhealthy air quality advisories for both smoke and ozone,” said air district spokeswoman Kristine Roselius.
The stifling heat also sparked fire worries. Acting Oakland Battalion Fire Chief Frank Tijiboy said the combination of high temperatures, dry conditions and wind gusts of up to 25 mph triggered a “red flag” warning in effect through at least 8 a.m. Saturday throughout virtually the entire city, including the Oakland hills, and beyond.
Both Oakland and Contra Costa County are in “high-level dispatch” mode, with virtually any report of any fire, or even smoke, prompting multiple-fire-engine responses. Ryan Bain, a spokesman for the Contra Costa County Fire District, said the fire danger had been so high already that this weekend’s extreme heat probably won’t make it appreciably worse.
“The low humidity is what kills us and what makes the fire danger so high,” Bain said. Late Friday afternoon, the humidity in Contra Costa was 10 to 14 percent, depending on specific location.
At Horace Cureton Elementary School in San Jose, half the classrooms don’t have air conditioning, which forced children to sit in sweltering classrooms Friday as temperatures soared.
“It’s very hot,” said a 7-year-old second-grade girl whose mom has been packing her ice water. “I’ve been staying in the shade.”
School administrators were helping kids beat the heat by passing out cold water, using stationary fans, and taking students to other classrooms with air conditioning in the afternoon. About 12 of the campus’s 24 classrooms lack air conditioning.
Mike Santa Maria, owner of Big Air Heating & Air Conditioning, in Concord, said his 16 employees have been putting in overtime recently, on Saturdays and late many evenings, fixing people’s air conditioners. There’s been a lot of overtime, including for seniors in Rossmoor, a Walnut
Creek retirement community.
“That’s just part of the business,” Santa Maria said. “Now it’s so hot that people can’t take it.”
In Gilroy, solar panel in- stallers with Poco Solar En- ergy in Santa Clara knew to start work extra early, before the roofs got so hot and soft they couldn’t walk on them safely, said Jonathan Gonzalez, the company’s customer relations manager.
Weather service Meteorologist Brian Garcia said the heat wave is occurring because a large area of high pressure from the Pacific Ocean is moving over the region and heading east to
the Nevada and Utah area.
Many cities have had “cooling centers” open on weekdays as a refuge for seniors
and others without air conditioners; some are extending those hours for at least some of those spots
through the holiday weekend. In Walnut Creek, the Civic Park Community Center near downtown will be open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
The East Oakland Multipurpose Senior Center opened its doors as a cooling center. Outside in the parking lot, Oakland senior Julia Hardy took her time loading fruit into her car’s trunk, courtesy of the center’s free food distribution.
“I’m just trying to eat a lot of salads, kick back and stay off the street,” she said. “I can’t ever remember it being this hot.”
Outside the Hercules Senior Center, George Funk was sitting on a bench, waiting for a bus to take him home, after having a cool lunch inside. Funk shrugged off the heat, saying it hardly compared to some of his life’s bigger hardships. “I was a prisoner of war of the Japanese … when Japan attacked the Philippines,” during World War II, Funk said
Malls are popular “cooling centers,” too. James Malkson, 66, of Martinez sipped on an iced Starbucks coffee at the Sunvalley Shopping Center in Concord on Friday. He said he often comes there to people watch. “You can see a lot of people here on a hot day,” Malkson said.
Caltrans highway crews will continue doing needed work, being careful to drink plenty of water. “We have areas in California where we often work in heat like this, and it’s what we do,” said Caltrans spokesman Robert Haus.
Pleasanton — where Kaderin Wylfheden and her fiance, Doug Songer, from Sacramento, camped Friday at the Alameda County Fairgrounds — could hit 110 Saturday. That’s when they will be Vikings as part of a historical re-enactment at the Scottish Gathering and Games.
“I get to wear simple linen clothing, but the women in the queen’s court wear these big poofy multi-layer dresses that trap the heat,” Wylfheden said. “I’m glad I don’t have to wear that this weekend.”
Staff writers Denis Cuff, Annie Sciacca, Ramona Giwargis, Harry Harris, Tammerlin Drummond, Cam Inman, Darren Sabedra, Tom Lochner, Matthias Gafni and Sharon Noguchi contributed to this report.