Weekend calls for shorts and T's and the search for a breeze

Near-record heat is expected this weekend in the North Coast, with a high in Santa Rosa of 91 degrees forecast for today and 95 Sunday — about 20 degrees above normal.

The unseasonably warm weather comes a week before the Memorial Day weekend, the traditional kickoff to the summer season.

But for some it appeared to start Friday.

Jesus Arevalos, a 31-year-old Santa Rosa construction worker, spent part of his day off Friday with his 4-year-old daughter, Alyssa, at the fountain at Santa Rosa’s Prince Memorial Greenway Park.

“We played hookie today. She wanted to spend the day with me,” said Arevalos, as he shaded himself with a 5-foot-wide beach umbrella. “They grow up so fast you have to make the most of every moment.”

Arevalos said it’s on to Lassen National Park for Memorial Day weekend and then Disneyland the weekend after that.

“I love the outdoors but I try to avoid the heat,” he said.

Santa Rosa’s expected high of 91 will be well below last year’s record high of 99 on the same date, but still much hotter than normal May temperatures in the mid-70s. The record for Sunday, 98 degrees, was set in 1997.

The heat is being caused by a ridge of high pressure off the West Coast. What’s more, the North Coast’s air conditioner is flowing in reverse.

“The winds are slightly offshore so they’re blowing from the land to the ocean, instead of blowing from the ocean onto the land, which usually cools us off quite a bit,” said Brian Tentinger, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Monterey.

Meanwhile, students of Mountain Shadows Middle School in Rohnert Park spent Friday morning sprucing up Copeland Creek and planting native plants. The students were working in conjunction with the Sonoma County Water Agency and the Expeditionary learning program at Mountain Shadows.

It’s the third year that the students have helped maintain the creek and their work came under beautiful sunny skies, and before the oppressive heat expected Saturday and Sunday.

Hillary Lynne, a 31-year-old Sonoma resident, went kayaking with a friend on the Russian River, beating the weekend rush.

“Today is the last day of Spring Break for me,” said Lynne, who is currently enrolled in Dominican University’s Green MBA program.

“The timing is perfect,” she said, adding that today “will be sunnier, warmer and much more crowded on the river.”

At Liv Fashion Boutique, a downtown Santa Rosa shop that specializes in trendy, affordable clothes and accessories, “everyone wants summer clothes,” said shop co-owner Olivia Walton.

Walton, who opened the 4th Street shop with her sister about 18 months ago, said popular items include summer dresses, tube tops, halter tops, shorts and mini-skirts.

Monday’s forecast calls for a high of 89, beginning a trend toward cooler weather arrive next week, said Tentinger.

“After that ridge kind of breaks down, temperature will cool off to normal this time of year, and again return to the stratus clouds by the middle of the week,” he said.