San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Temperatures soar well into triple digits as heat wave builds
Tripledigit temperatures cooked much of California on Saturday, with the thermometer soaring close to 110 in parts of the Bay Area and forecasters saying at least another two days of heat was in store.
Cloverdale recorded a high of 107 degrees, according to the National Weather Service. Napa County’s Lake Berryessa hit 109. Vacaville saw 107.
“It’s really, really hot,” said Vacaville resident Carrington Burch, who was trying to beat the heat by taking her two young children out for a swim at the Walter V. Graham Aquatic Center. Her kids planned to be in the water as much as they could, with lots of sunscreen, of course.
An excessive heat warning remained in effect through Sunday night for most of the Bay Area and Central Valley, with a heat advisory in effect most everywhere else. High temperatures are also forecast for Monday. Only San Francisco, the coast and bayside areas have been spared. The city’s high Saturday was 66 downtown.
The Bay Area’s second heat wave in as many weeks was caused by a highpressure system over Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado — and specifically where those states meet, a weather expert said.
“It’s the high pressure area that’s centered over the Four Corners area, to the southeast, that’s keeping the air pretty stagnant and the heat trapped around the Bay Area,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Brayden Murdock. “When you have a high pressure like this, the heat just builds up.”
Because of the heat and a wildfire that raged in southern Oregon, which was straining the power grid, the state’s electric grid operator called on California residents to reduce energy use for a second straight evening, from 4 to 9 p.m. The outofcontrol Bootleg Fire in Klamath County was imperiling three highvoltage transmission lines that send power to California, according to the California Independent Service Operator.
There were no immediate plans for rotating shutoffs to save energy, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. said.
A Spare the Air alert was also in effect Saturday as high temperatures and smog converged to create unhealthy conditions, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District said. Driving and outdoor activities were discouraged, and using fireplaces was forbidden, on the off chance that someone was actually considering doing such a thing.
In Vacaville, Daniel Tooley was considering a fridge cooldown — standing in front of his open refrigerator for 10 minutes — when he left the city’s aquatic center “hot and sweaty” after watching his son’s diving practice Saturday afternoon.
“I’ve just been sitting in the shade for half an hour, and even that is just too much,” he explained. “And the torture is I’m watching the swimming pool, they’re all diving and I can’t get in!”
In Solano County, 11 libraries were designated as cooling centers: in Benicia, Dixon, Fairfield, Rio Vista, Suisun, Vacaville and Vallejo.
Tim Madigan, a supervising librarian at the Fairfield Civic Library, said that while the library was seeing a bit of extra foot traffic on the scorching day, it was not nearly as crowded as before the pandemic.
“It’s a big space,” he said, so even with social distancing requirements, “we’re able to accommodate all the people who come in.”
For those seeking to hang out someplace beside a public library or a senior center, the Solano County Department of Emergency Services recommended visiting a shopping center, movie theater, public pool or even “a family member with air conditioning.”
In Contra Costa County, sweatdrenched denizens were invited to seek refuge in one of 31 cooling centers in the cities of Antioch, Brentwood, Concord, Danville, Hercules, Martinez, Oakley, Pinole, Pittsburg, Pleasant Hill, Richmond and Walnut Creek.
In Oakley, in northeast Contra Costa County, a senior center in the old firehouse on Second Street had two swamp coolers ready for anyone who dropped by to play Monopoly and Scrabble and solve jigsaw puzzles, said club coordinator Jim Fridas.
“We’ll have cold water in the refrigerator, too,” Fridas said. “Plenty of cold water. There was a whole case of it on the counter, on Thursday. I hope someone remembered to put it in the refrigerator.”
Oakley was looking at tripledigit temperatures, too.
“It’s already 86, and that’s inside my house,” Fridas said early Saturday. “Wow.”
“I’ve just been sitting in the shade for half an hour, and even that is just too much.” Daniel Tooley of Vacaville