LOS ANGELES — Winter will look a lot like summer up and down California for the rest of the week as a heat wave stoked by bursts of Santa Ana winds builds in the south and unseasonable warmth sets in elsewhere, forecasters said Wednesday.
With temperatures predicted to be far above normal in much of Southern California, the National Weather Service upgraded a heat watch to a heat advisory lasting from late Wednesday morning through Sunday.
The heat watch and advisory were the first to be issued by the Los Angeles region weather office in the month of February, according to records dating to 2006.
Record high temperatures for the date were reported Wednesday in several cities, including Santa Maria and Newport Beach. Oakland hit 75 degrees Fahrenheit (24 degrees Celsius), topping a 2006 high.
A high of 83 degrees Fahrenheit (28.3 Celsius) was recorded for downtown LA on Wednesday, shy of the date's record of 89 (31.6 Celsius) set in 2016. The normal high is 68 (20 Celsius).
Downtown LA's highest February temperature was 95 (35 Celsius) on Feb. 20, 1995.
After a December drenching, California has been largely warm and dry as a result of a ridge of high pressure over the eastern Pacific Ocean and the West Coast. The pattern causes offshore flow of air, including periods of gusty winds.
Temperature records could also fall elsewhere, including the San Francisco Bay Area and the Central Valley.
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