Bay Area records keep falling as heat wave persists
San Francisco’s recordshattering heat wave continued into Saturday, with a 102degree afternoon that was the hottest Sept. 2 ever seen in the city.
The city broke the record for the day at 1:43 p.m. Saturday, just a day after recording San Francisco’s hottest day ever measured by the National Weather Service on Friday at 106 degrees.
For only the third time since 1874, when official climate records were first kept, San Francisco has seen two days in a row of triple-digit temperatures. The previous record of 94 for the day was set in 1991.
Oakland topped out at 101 degrees, San Jose at 107, and Livermore was even hotter at 108, said Steve Anderson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Monterey. Santa Rosa reached 110 degrees. All those temperatures were all-time highs for the day.
In all, 11 high-temperature records for Sept. 2 were broken across the Bay Area on Saturday. Along with San Francisco and Oakland, San Jose also set a record high for Sept. 2, as did Healdsburg, which reached a high of 111, breaking the previous record of 110 set in 1950. Santa Rosa saw its second day of 110degree heat in a row, eclipsing the previous Sept. 2 record of 107 set in 1955.
Farther south, Salinas had an all-time record high of 107 degrees Saturday.
A red-flag warning for an increase in fire danger was also issued for parts of the region.
Adding to the oppressive heat was smoke that continued to pour in from wildfires burning in Northern California and Oregon.
The smoggy conditions led the Bay Area Quality Management District to issue a Spare the Air Alert for Saturday. With fires in the north of the state, a smoke advisory is in place for the entire weekend, with Monday set to be “extremely hazy,” said Drew Peterson of the National Weather Service.
The unprecedented stretch of weather should end by Sunday, when temperatures are predicted to be 10 to 15 degrees cooler near the coast, with forecasts calling for continued cooling to the 70s by Wednesday.
Inland cities like Concord and Livermore, however, will face yet another day of triple-digit temperatures Sunday before cooling into the 90s by Monday. “This is the last of the very hot weather,” Anderson said.