In the North Bay, feeling hot, hot, hot

Summer isn’t exactly going gentle into that good night, as the poem goes, but it is going to giving us a break the next three days.

The North Bay saw temperatures that peaked in the high 90s Monday, while Cloverdale, Healdsburg and Petaluma hit triple digits, according to AccuWeather.

Healdsburg took home the gold for the most sweat-inducing temperature at ?102 degrees.

The lowest high for the North Bay, and it’s no surprise, came from Bodega Bay, which peaked at a comfortable 65 degrees.

No records appeared to have been broken Monday, but at least one came close.

In Santa Rosa, where temperatures climbed to 98, the record high for Sept. 19 is 101 degrees, set in 2000. The average high is just 83.

So what’s to blame for all this heat during summer’s final gasp? A high pressure ridge circling over the Bay Area. Not to fear, though, as a low pressure ridge - which typically brings cooler temperatures with it - lays in wait just off the coast. Highs should drop about 10 degrees in the coming days, said Rick Canepa, a forecaster with the National Weather Service, before climbing back into the 90s this weekend.

It’s all pretty normal for this time of year, Canepa said, though it might feel hotter than usual thanks to the North Bay’s unusually cool summer.

Karissa Kruse, president of Sonoma County Winegrowers, said that because of the cooler August, the heat means good things for harvest. The county already has harvested about 40 percent of its grapes, she said, with things ramping up in the days before this weekend’s expected heat wave sets in.

“The cool August really allowed the grapes to hang and the flavors to mature, so these last couple of days, these heat spikes have really helped get the grapes over the ripening hurdle,” she said. “If the heat spike had been in early August, we would have seen a lot of sugar without the flavors developing.”