Nearly 36 million people in California are now under heat alerts Sunday as a dangerous multi-day October heat wave continues to push temperatures well above normal for the season into next week.
Extreme heat will hold across much of Southern California through 8 p.m. Thursday, with Death Valley National Park under alert through 8 p.m. Friday, where temperatures could reach about 110°F, roughly 43°C, during the day and only drop to about 85°F, around 29°C, overnight.
Across the southern counties, nights will remain unusually warm, with lows mostly in the 70s.
In the valleys of Los Angeles and Ventura counties, temperatures could reach 106 degrees during the day, while coastal areas could reach 90 to 100 degrees. Inland Orange County in other stance is expected to see a temperatures from the mid-90s to 103 degrees, with the San Bernardino and Riverside valleys expected to reach 105 degrees.
Daytime around San Diego County, temperatures could reach the mid-80s to mid-90s at the beaches, while the area of the valleys is also expected to number at mid-90s to low 100s on the mesas and 103 degrees.
“Very hot temperatures are likely to continue into the second week of October, possibly requiring an extension of this product,” the weather service said in a warning covering parts of Santa Barbara County.
The state has identified extreme heat as its deadliest weather-related hazard, and a previous statewide event illustrates why.
From Aug. 31 to Sept. 9, 2022, the state recorded 8,324 deaths compared with 7,929 expected, a difference of 395 excess deaths, or 5% more than expected, according to the California Department of Public Health. Including three additional days for delayed deaths, the total reached 441.
That 2022 heat wave set temperature records in about 1,500 locations, with deaths increased across all heat-sensitive disease categories the state examined, although only 20 were specifically coded as heat-related.
The largest statistically significant increases occurred among adults 25 to 64, up 11%, and Hispanic Californians, up 10%, while the South Coast had the highest regional increase at 9%.
California’s 2026 Extreme Heat Action Plan says extreme-heat events are becoming more common, more severe and longer-lasting. Summer 2024 was the state’s hottest summer on record. Annual temperatures have already risen by more than 1 degree Fahrenheit across most of California, with some regions warming by more than 2 degrees.
With heat-related illness risk rising significantly, officials has now urge residents to drink fluids, and further stay in air-conditioned rooms, and to avoid direct sun and to also check on relatives and neighbors.
Car interiors can reach lethal drastic sweeping temperatures within minutes. Children, pets, outdoor workers, older adults, people with disabilities, people with certain health conditions and people without air conditioning face greater risk.
Los Angeles opened 10 dedicated cooling centers that is estimated to operating daily from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. through Oct. 10.
Those centers accept pets, within a city network of more than 100 cooling locations including recreation facilities and more than 70 public library branches.
More than 4,300 Angelenos and dozens of pets used dedicated centers during activations from mid-July through early September, with many thousands more using air-conditioned parks and libraries.
