Weather tracker: Scorching temperatures in California threaten heat records

Heat will build over parts of California this week, potentially challenging current temperature records. The US National Weather Service has issued excessive heat warnings and heat advisories for the days between Tuesday and Saturday due to “dangerously hot conditions” with temperatures likely to soar into the triple digits fahrenheit.

Temperatures have already been building across the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys this past weekend, but will continue to rise through this week. One of the hottest cities will likely be Fresno, where maximum temperatures could exceed 110F (43C) across multiple days. Death Valley may also get close to 130F (54C) towards the end of the week; a temperature that has been reached only three times – in 1913, 2020 and 2021. Temperatures more widely will reach 100-110F (38-43C) between Tuesday and Saturday, although peak temperatures could reach 115F (46C), which would be 5-10C above the climatological average. In addition to the high daytime maximum temperatures, there won’t be much relief overnight, with minimum temperatures dropping into the mid-60s F to low-80s F (around 18C-28C).

Alongside scorching temperatures, officials are warning this week of elevated fire conditions, particularly the first half of this week with strong winds and low humidity expected. Fires have already been reported this past weekend, as firefighters battled a 250-acre brush fire in Riverside County on Saturday. With the Fourth of July federal holiday this week, Cal Fire officials are reminding residents to be safe when lighting fireworks because of their propensity to spark fires.

Meanwhile, hurricane warnings have been issued for much of the Windward Islands in the Caribbean. Hurricane Beryl explosively intensified from a tropical depression to a major (category 3+) hurricane in just 42 hours between Friday afternoon to Sunday morning. This has only happened six times in the Atlantic Basin, and none of those previous occurrences happened before September, which is around the peak of the Atlantic hurricane season. According to the National Hurricane Center, Beryl strengthened into a category 4 hurricane later on Sunday, with sustained winds of 130mph and even higher wind gusts.

Beryl is expected to bring potentially catastrophic hurricane-force winds, a life-threatening storm surge, and damaging waves across the Windward Islands. Heavy rain is also expected to bring flooding, with about 150mm (6in) possible across Barbados, St Vincent and the Grenadines, and surrounding islands by Tuesday. Beryl is expected to remain a powerful hurricane as it moves west to north-westwards through the Caribbean Sea later this week, although there is uncertainty over its exact track.