Your SoCal weather report for Friday, July 19: Prolonged heatwave hits the Southland

Happy Friday folks. The heat will turn up this weekend and forecasters remind us to check in on our loved ones as prolonged heat can be hazardous for health.

Patchy fog will clear by 11 a.m. at the beaches with mostly sunny skies this afternoon. Coastal areas will see highs in the 70s, up to the mid 80s for the inland coast and inland Orange County.

Highs for the San Gabriel Valley and eastern San Fernando Valley will be in the upper 80s to low 90s, up to 101 in the Santa Clarita Valley and 106 degrees for the western San Fernando Valley and Inland Empire.

Meanwhile in the desert, between 100 to 109 degrees for high desert, and up to 115 degrees for Coachella Valley.

Tonight's lows will drop to the mid 60s, 70s for the deserts.

About the heat

Forecasters have issued an excessive heat warning and heat advisory for much of the region's interior mountains, foothills, valleys away from the coast and deserts through Wednesday. Temperatures are expected to reach between 95 to 105 degrees.

There's also a chance of dry lightning and thunderstorm s these next couple of days, which could spark wildfires.

Forecasters say that with this prolonged heatwave, excessive heat for several days is dangerous because it doesn't give our bodies enough time to cool down and studies show the body temperatures of children heat up faster.

This day in history

On this day in 1969 Apollo II and its astronauts orbited the moon.

Things to do

• Wrex Coast Tour : If you’ve seen the FX series Welcome to Wrexham you’re already well-versed in the Cinderella story of Wales’ Wrexham soccer club. Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney invested in the ragtag footballers across the pond, and their leadership has led both the women’s and men’s teams to success over the past few seasons. This weekend, they come off your screen and onto the pitch at UCLA, where you can see the women’s team take on SoCal FC on Friday or Tigres Femenil’s Under 19s on Sunday.
• It's Food Friday and this Sunday is National Ice Cream Day! We created a list of LA's most unique ice cream eateries .

Check out our full list of things to do this weekend.