North Bay can expect cooler days, but dry thunderstorms to follow weekend heat

North Bay residents who spent much of the weekend finding ways to escape temperatures that reached into the upper 90s — or triple-digits in more remote areas — can expect a cooldown this week, but not before they’ll have to make it through a brief bout of dry thunderstorms, the National Weather Service said.

Temperatures are expected to drop as Wednesday approaches, but until then, the heat is expected to linger.

Dry thunderstorms (also known as lightning storms), which forecasters said would begin Sunday evening and last into the early hours of Monday, will bridge the outgoing heat wave and the incoming cooldown.

The high heat started Friday evening with temperatures in the upper 80s in Santa Rosa and upper 90s in Cloverdale.

Sarah McCorkle, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Monterey office, said Saturday started in the upper 60s to the mid 70s in Santa Rosa.

Temperatures then rose to the low 90s in Santa Rosa with Cloverdale approaching 100 degrees around 2 p.m. with the heat hanging around until the evening.

McCorkle said the highest-recorded temperature on Saturday was 103 degrees near Lake Sonoma, just west of Cloverdale.

National Weather Service data indicated temperatures reached a high of 94 degrees at Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport on Saturday with a low of 54 degrees.

Meteorologist Braydon Murdock, who is also with the weather service’s Monterey office, said temperatures along the coast were cooler with the area maxing out in the 60s with a few parts edging into the 70s.

He said the area of Burnt Ridge saw a high of 98 on Sunday with temperatures a bit farther south in the unincorporated community of Cazadero hitting a high of 101.

Murdock said the city of Napa recorded a high of 92 degrees on Sunday with temperatures warming up at higher elevations due to a high pressure system that passed through.

He said Atlas Peak in Napa Valley, for example, topped out at 101.

On Saturday, a cooling center opened at the COTS’ Mary Isaak Center, 900 Hopper St., in Petaluma. It was expected to continue to operate through Monday during the hours of 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

COTS CEO Chris Cabral said the center can hold up to 15 people and that ice water, air-conditioning and ready-to-go free meals are also available for those who need them.

Because Cabral doesn’t work on weekends, she said she wasn’t able to say how many people used the cooling center on Saturday or Sunday.

Murdock said no red flag warnings, which alert people to the risks of wildfires associated with the heat, were issued over the weekend.

He said that while cooler temperatures are expected as the coming week progresses it was still too early on Sunday to tell if the heat will return next weekend.

He believes if it does it may not be as hot as it was this past weekend.

“If it does start to look more robust, then we’ll probably start messaging out the fact that there could be some key risks out there,” he said. “But for now, it might still be just a little too far out to know.”

James White, a meteorologist with the weather service’s Eureka office, said Mendocino and Lake counties experienced well-above-average temperatures over the past couple of days with Ukiah reaching the highest temperatures on Saturday and Sunday of 108 degrees, just shy of its 109-degree record.

In Lake County, Clearlake and Lakeport have stayed cooler than Ukiah, though they also experienced above-average temperatures.

Even so, no red flag warnings were issued for either Lake or Mendocino counties.

“The lake (Clear Lake) itself there ... keeps us a little bit cool. So definitely well-above-average temperatures and that's why we've had an excessive heat warning in those areas,” White said.

Here’s what North Bay residents can expect from the weather in the next few days:

Monday

• Overnight temperatures into Monday morning will not cool off as much as normal.
• Temperatures expected to be more “seasonable” ranging from low 90s to upper 90s for Santa Rosa with northern parts of the county expected to be warmer.
• High pressure expected to weaken and shift east, bringing slightly cooler temperatures.

Tuesday

• Santa Rosa will start in the low to mid 60s between 9 and 10 a.m.
• By 2 p.m., Santa Rosa will be in the low 80s to low 90s with Cloverdale reaching the low 90s.
• Temperatures will cool a bit by 6 p.m. with Santa Rosa reaching the mid 70s while Cloverdale will cool to the upper 80s.

You can reach Staff Writer Sara Edwards at 707-521-5487 or sara.edwards@pressdemocrat. com. On Twitter @sedwards380.