Warm and dry conditions could bring “moderate heat risk” to parts of California’s Central Valley, where the National Weather Service (NWS) warned that temperatures could climb to the mid-90s. At the same time, floods are becoming faster and furious.
While a modest breeze could develop by Wednesday evening along the coast, inland areas will continue to experience highs “around 10 degrees above average,” according to the NWS.
“We do have an unusual weather pattern across the western U.S. and Western Canada right now,” University of California, Los Angeles climate scientist Daniel Swain said during virtual office hours earlier this week.
He described the pattern as “extreme,” explaining that there has been a high-pressure ridge — an elongated zone accompanied by hot and dry weather — over Western Canada.
This event shares some commonalities with the “unbelievably extreme heat wave” that occurred in June 2021, Swain said. But he also highlighted some key differences.
Since the current event is happening in mid-May rather than in late June — and because the system’s center is farther north — temperatures are not quite as high across the entire region, Swain explained.
But he recognized that some areas are enduring record-breaking highs, and that the hot conditions are up against an ongoing wildfire outbreak in Alberta and British Columbia.
“It may get even worse in the coming days, with wind shifts and additional heat, along with the potential for some dry lightning up there,” Swain added.
As this unseasonable heat wave continues, the NWS meteorologists urged residents to take necessary precautions.
“People should practice heat safety by staying hydrated, dressing light, knowing where to find shade, and looking before locking their cars for elderly, pets and children,” the meteorologists advised.
Both the NWS forecasters and Swain reminded residents that the increasingly warm temperatures are driving ongoing — and potentially treacherous — snowmelt, following an unusually wet winter.
“Snowmelt is once again accelerating,” Swain said. “The big melt is not occurring in just one giant pulse but it’s just in these successively larger pulses.”
In Central California’s San Joaquin Valley and the Tulare Lake Basin, he warned of prolonged floods, stressing that this is “going to be a story that continues to unfold.”
“The peak is probably yet to come. It’s just been slow in coming,” Swain said.
Along these lines, the NWS meteorologists delivered an ominous message, noting that “waterways are still running cold and fast due to snowmelt.”
“Beware of area waterways!” they stated.
