HOT THROUGH SATURDAY, THEN COOLING TREND FOR NORTH BAY

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Strong high pressure nosing in from the Desert Southwest is bringing temperatures back to 100 degrees plus across the warmest parts of the North Bay. This warming will continue through Saturday, before a gradual cool down begins.

You can see the high pressure aloft retrograding (moving west) into Central California on Friday.

That is compressing the marine layer and even scouring it away in places, keeping our natural “air conditioner” confined to the immediate coast near Bodega Bay and Pt Reyes.

The current heat event will be shortlived. By Sunday a low pressure center off the Pacific Northwest coast will begin to nudge in from the north, pushing the high pressure dome east and cooling us down.

Subtle cooling will begin as soon as Sunday, with highs most places returning to the 80s.

Inland parts of the North Bay will be at highest risk of heat through Saturday.

As often happens during our heat events, the hills will stay dangerously hot and dry through Saturday. This upper air sounding at Oakland on Saturday shows a marked spike in temperatures at around 2500 feet, and very dry air as well, with a big difference between green lines (dew point) and red lines (temperature) at that elevation.

That means through Saturday at least, expect very warm nights in the hills of the North Bay, with heightened fire danger.

For the rest of July and August, the long range outlooks from both major forecast models suggest we may see near to slightly above normal temperatures for the North Bay. As El Nino strengthens this fall (as predicted), our temperatures may trend upward across the state.