West Hollywood’s forecast for this week is straight up cray-cray.
It’s expected to be at least 90 degrees today, 95 on Tuesday, 92 on Wednesday, 93 on Thursday and 92 on Friday, with overnight lows in the low 60s. The normal high for mid-March is… wait for it… around 70. So yeah, this is not normal. This is even hot for August.
The National Weather Service put a heat advisory in effect starting 10 a.m. Monday. It upgrades to an extreme heat warning at 10 a.m. Tuesday and stays there through 8 p.m. Friday. During the advisory, temps between 90 and 98 are expected. Under the warning, the NWS says dangerously hot conditions between 96 and 104.
The agency called it “a historic, long and record-breaking March heat wave” and said daily and possibly monthly records could go down this week. High risk for heat illness across the board, they said, especially for the very young, the very old, people without air conditioning and anyone working or exercising outside. Warm overnight temperatures will make it worse because there’s no real cooldown after dark.
It was just a month ago West Hollywood residents were filling sandbags and watching flash flood warnings roll across their phones. February brought tornado warnings, a ground stop at LAX and rainfall rates hitting an inch an hour. Downtown LA has already blown past its full-season rainfall normal of 14.25 inches with four months still left in the rain year.
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Now it’s heat advisories and cooling centers.
Beverly Hills is forecast to hit 90 on Monday. Downtown LA could reach 101 on Tuesday. Glendale may get to 104. Santa Monica could see 91. The San Fernando Valley’s looking at triple digits by midweek. There will be no “beating the heat,” it’s gonna be hot everywhere.
The all-time March temperature record for downtown Los Angeles is 99 degrees, set in 1879. That could fall this week.
“We’re looking at an almost 150-year-old record potentially being dethroned here,” said Bryan Lewis, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard. “Basically everything we’re looking at is suggesting extremely hot temperatures.”
Weather scientist Daniel Swain told the LA Times it’s “effectively a full-on summer heatwave in March.”
Some records already went down last week. Camarillo hit 93 Thursday, breaking its previous March record of 89 from 2015. Long Beach tied its 2007 record at 92. Oxnard hit 94. This week’s supposed to be worse.
Wildfire Risk
One upside from all that winter rain: heavier vegetation is still moist, and winds are expected to stay light, which keeps the risk of fast-spreading wildfires lower than it’d normally be in this kind of heat. But the NWS said the dry conditions will speed up fuels drying out if rain doesn’t come back soon. Small grass fires are a concern.
“It doesn’t look like there’s any rain on the horizon, so that could certainly be, for the long term, somewhat of a concern for fire season,” Lewis said.
Cooling Centers and Safety
Residents can dial 2-1-1 to find the nearest cooling center. The City of West Hollywood activates its cooling center at the Plummer Park Community Center Senior Lounge at 7377 Santa Monica Blvd. whenever temperatures hit 90 degrees or above. Staff at Plummer Park can point people to the right spot. The City also offers free rides there through its Cityline shuttle service, which runs Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. with pickups about every 30 minutes. All shuttles are ADA-accessible. Route maps and more info at www.weho.org/cityline.
Temperatures should start dropping Saturday with more noticeable cooling by Sunday. No significant rain in the forecast through the rest of the month.
