Move Over Cloudy Weather. A Heat Wave Is Coming To LA

Get out your shorts and t-shirts — after a week of cool spring temperatures under overcast skies, a scorching and potentially dangerous heatwave will hit the region starting Wednesday.

Highs are expected to be in the upper 80s for the beaches, the low to mid-90s in downtown L.A., and topping 100 degrees in parts of the San Fernando Valley — an unusual occurrence for April in the Southland.

"For Burbank, for instance, the normal high temperature would be 71 degrees," said David Sweet, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service. "So we're looking at something like 20 to 25 degrees above normal."

Northern winds will push away the cloudy weather in the valleys and mountain ranges along the I-5 corridor, setting the stage for record-high temperatures through Friday.

Keep up with LAist.

If you're enjoying this article, you'll love our daily newsletter, The LA Report. Each weekday, catch up on the 5 most pressing stories to start your morning in 3 minutes or less.

Subscribe

Sweet warned that high temperatures could lead to heat stress. He recommends staying indoors with air conditioning and drinking plenty of liquids to keep hydrated.

Heatwaves can also bring higher risk of fires, but for this week Sweet said last week's rains should help minimize rapid fire spread.

The sizzling heat should start subsiding by Saturday, when temperatures will drop back down to the mid-80s. By Sunday, the highs should fall to the low 70s.