By Chris Woodyard via USA TODAY
LOS ANGELES — Just in time for the Labor Day weekend, the West is being socked with a triple-digit heat wave that comes as many of the traditional escapes are out of reach due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“It’s going to be downright brutal the next few days,” predicted John Feerick, senior meteorologist for AccuWeather.
The heat wave arrives as California is still mopping up from a series of massive wildfires and hoping to avoid rolling blackouts from too much of a strain on the electrical power system.
The sizzling heat isn’t just going to broil the Golden State. The same high-pressure ridge will generate blistering temperatures in Utah, Arizona and Nevada, Feerick said. The National Weather Service issued excessive heat warnings covering much of the Southwest.
The mercury starts to rise in Los Angeles on Friday. The predicted high temperature of 105 degrees on Saturday would tie a record set in 1984, he said. The forecast high of 107 degrees on Sunday would handily break the record of 102 degrees set in 1955.
Elsewhere in the West, AccuWeather forecasts Phoenix will peak at 112 degrees on Saturday, Sacramento at 111 degrees on Sunday and Las Vegas at 112 degrees on Monday.
Temperatures taper off Monday as cooler air flows in from the Rockies.
Late-summer heat blasts are hardly unusual, but this one will require residents in many cities to get creative when it comes to finding chilly retreats. In Los Angeles, the city’s public libraries and city swimming pools have been closed all summer as a precaution against spread of the coronavirus. Read more from USA TODAY.
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