The Bay Area sizzled Friday with record high temperatures in a heat wave predicted to maintain its grip on the region today, straining power grids, heightening fire fears and sending people to swimming areas and cooling centers for relief.
Santa Rosa baked with a record for the date of 110 degrees, the hottest day of the year so far. It also surpassed the previous Sept. 1 record of 105 degrees, set in 1950.
“Everyone broke records today. Some broke all-time highs,” said National Weather forecaster Steve Anderson.
In Sonoma County, a handful of cities were hotter than Santa Rosa, according to figures reported by AccuWeather. Cloverdale hit a high of 115 degrees, Rohnert Park topped out at 113, Healdsburg hit 112, and Sebastopol and Petaluma reached 111 degrees. Discrepancies between AccuWeather figures and those reported by the Weather Service made it difficult to determine whether the cities broke records for the day or set all-time marks.
Calistoga, Kentfield and San Rafael also set new Sept. 1 records, with temperatures of 110 degrees, 107 degrees and 109 degrees, respectively. Elsewhere in Sonoma County, Petaluma reported a high of 106 degrees, Sebastopol reported 109 degrees and the Sonoma Valley weathered a 110-degree high, according to the Weather Service.
In another eye-popping number, San Francisco hit an all-time high of 106 degrees, shattering records reaching back more than 140 years.
The city’s famous cooling fog, which usually spares San Francisco while the rest of the state broils, was nowhere to be found.
“The fog, it’s been obliterated, shunted about 300 miles offshore,” Anderson said.
The extreme, historic heat was being blamed on a ridge of high pressure that settled over the western United States and is excepted to push temperatures as high Saturday before easing slightly over the rest of the Labor Day weekend.
“We’re seeing a very warm air mass, no sea breeze. What little breeze there is, is not contributing to much cooling,” Anderson said.
With millions of people visiting beaches, parks and campgrounds over the weekend, Cal Fire was urging Californians to be extra careful with their outdoor activities, such as never moving a vehicle into high grass.
Even with crews scheduled around the clock, PG&E was expecting outages as air conditioners and fans use record amounts of electricity.
“Because there has been extensive heat for multiple days, the equipment is not able to cool down as fast,” PG&E spokeswoman Deanna Contreras said of the utility’s transformers,
Expected energy use on Friday was predicted to eclipse a previous record demand set in July of 2006.
She said customers should try to avoid using their major appliances such as ovens, vacuum cleaners, washers and dryers, between 1 and 10 p.m. But they should also prepare for the possibility of power outages.
Some high schools were scheduling their football contests earlier in the day to avoid any heat related problems. Novato High School, for example, rescheduled games against visiting Piner High to 9 a.m. Saturday.
The Petaluma Shakespeare Company canceled Saturday’s outdoor performance of the play Henry IV, citing the heat and smoky air, with plans to resume Sunday night. Other event organizers, including those putting on the Taste of Sonoma Saturday at the Green Music Center, were taking precautionary steps to keep guests cool.
