Your SoCal Weather Report For Thursday, August 1: Warmer weather and potential thunderstorms

Happy Thursday! It's the first day of August and it's going to be a typically warm Southern California day with wind in some areas this afternoon and a chance of thunderstorms overnight.

Then it will get very hot tomorrow. Temperatures will slowly warm each day, potentially leading to significant heat risks across the interior deserts, mountains and valleys as early as Saturday and could last for several days.

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Look for highs today in the mid 70s to mid 80s around L.A. In Orange County, it'll be in the 70s near the beaches and in the 80s farther inland.

Up to 90 in the San Gabriel Valley. Santa Clarita and Antelope Valleys will be in the mid-90s and windy this afternoon.

The San Fernando and Riverside County valleys, as well as the Inland Empire, will be up to 100 degrees. The Coachella Valley will warm up to 108 today.

Monsoonal moisture will bring a small chance — about 20% — of rain to areas south of Point Conception tonight into Friday, then over the mountains and Antelope Valley through Saturday.

There's a dense fog advisory for the Ventura County and southern Santa Barbara County coastal areas until 9 a.m.

A fire weather watch begins at noon for potential dry thunderstorms that could affect portions of the interior mountains, foothills, and valleys of Los Angeles, Ventura, and Santa Barbara counties. The fire weather watch will last until 8 p.m. Friday.

A marine weather statement is in effect and has a small potential to bring coastal thunderstorms to Southern California this evening into Friday.

This day in history

On this day in 1993, it was an amazing 123 degrees in Palm Springs, the highest temperature on record for many years. The thermometer has hit that temperature several times since then, but just last month on July 5, the hottest temperature recorded in Palm Springs was broken again when the National Weather Service recorded the heat at 124 degrees.

Things to do

This threat of thunderstorms and a heat wave make you want to get your fun in before the weekend. Here's something to do this evening ahead of the dangerous weather:

• Downtown L.A. Art Night: Emerging Gallery — 125 W. 4th St., Downtown L.A. — 25 downtown galleries will participate in the free monthly art crawl, which brings folks downtown after hours and spans a walking circuit from 2nd St. up to Olympic Blvd. between Grand and Los Angeles. There’s more on display than we could possibly share here; the full gallery events list just posted last night. Emerging Gallery on 4th St. is the suggested starting point. The events run from 6 pm to 10 pm.

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