A winter heat wave is coming to SoCal, but the fire risk is low

Time to ditch your winter jackets because Southern California is in for a potentially record-breaking heat wave — in January.

Temperatures will peak Wednesday, hitting the mid 80s in some areas, especially in the valleys, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Brian Lewis. Downtown Los Angeles will see a high of around 82 degrees, while Pasadena could be closer to 85 — record numbers for this time of the year.

“We’ll see a little bit of a cooling trend towards the end of the week, but it’ll be quite gradual, so we’ll still stay relatively warm into the weekend,” Lewis said.

Going into the weekend, temperatures will be in the upper 70s to low 80s. Those higher temperatures will be more common, especially away from the coast.

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“It’ll be pretty nice weather and it doesn’t look like there’s going to be any real significant issues in terms of rip currents or high surf,” he said. “It should be a pretty nice day for the beach here in mid-January.”

What’s causing the high temperatures

“The Santa Ana winds are certainly the driving force,” Lewis said.

Even if you don’t feel the winds, it’s bringing warmer temperatures – and they’re higher than average by about 10 to 15 degrees.

And while Santa Ana winds typically fuel fire conditions, the risk is lower for this heat wave, Lewis said.

“The fire risk is absolutely mitigated by all the rain we got, so it’s really not much of a concern, even though we have these hot, dry and windy conditions,” he said.