‘Relief is coming’: Hot, humid weather will finally break in Southern California
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- After days of record-breaking heat and brutal humidity, Southern California will finally get a break.
- Starting Friday, a cooling trend will shave degrees off daily highs through at least Sunday.
- By Sunday, coastal highs should sink into the upper 70s, and inland areas can expect highs in the 80s.
Friday will finally mark the start of a cooling trend in Southern California, coming days after brutally hot temperatures and abnormally high humidity broke several local records and caused health and safety concerns across the region, particularly at schools and homes without air conditioning.
“The relief is coming,” National Weather Service meteorologist Bryan Lewis said Friday morning. “In general, things are going to start to feel a lot better.”
The last remaining heat advisories from the weather service are set to expire Friday evening for most of Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties, as well as for the Inland Empire.
It’s been hot in SoCal, but at least it’s a dry heat. Wait. It’s not dry — at all. Locals’ favorite summertime cliche has been brutally terminated by the worst humidity we’ve ever seen.
Heat and humidity on Friday are expected to fall from peaks on Thursday, with highs across the region dropping 4 to 8 degrees, forecasts show. That trend will continue through the weekend, with Sunday highs likely a few degrees below normal for this time of year.
“By Saturday, generally we’ll see temperatures on the coast right around the upper 70s, and then further inland, right around the mid-80s, even lower 80s,” Lewis said. “And then even cooler Sunday.”
Lewis called it “a pretty big swing” from temperatures this week.
Highs along L.A. County’s coast soared into the 90s on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday this week, while inland valleys recorded highs hitting the triple digits. Nighttime offered little relief in most areas, and scientists believe the humidity may have been the highest ever experienced in the Southland.
“The sticky tropical air will finally exit the region by this weekend,” the weather service wrote in its Friday forecast. “Marine layer clouds will likely return to many coastal areas.”
Forecasters also say the high surf and rough ocean conditions that rattled coastlines from Malibu to San Diego over the last week are expected to calm.
“That swell from former Hurricane Marie has died off,” Rich Thompson, a National Weather Service meteorologist, said. Beach conditions “should be pretty normal.”
Still, the effect of those strong, high waves continues to come to light.
Laguna Beach on Friday joined a growing list of Southern California cities that have declared a local emergency in the aftermath of the storm, which transformed beaches and damaged dozens of beachfront properties.
In Laguna Beach, officials said unrelenting swells have caused widespread coastal erosion, pulling “a significant amount of sand off our beaches” and damaging a parking lot at Aliso Beach, the city wrote in a statement. The city also confirmed damage to the sea walls in front of six oceanfront homes on Ocean Way and Lagunita Drive, “yellow-tagging” them to ensure ongoing caution.
Dana Point declared such an emergency earlier in the week, after more than a dozen homes were damaged by strong surf, as did Malibu, after a massive sinkhole formed at a beachside home.
And experts say the more-typical ocean conditions and temperatures may stick around.
Officials are sounding alarms about the potential health impacts related to this week’s oppressive humidity and intense heat, that’s only expected to rise, across Southern California.
“It honestly seems like it will stay cooler than normal for pretty much the entire area this weekend, and for the first part of next week,” Lewis said.
“Pretty nice compared to what we did see the last few days,” he added. “That was pretty brutal.”
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