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It seems like every year, we’re breaking heat records in the Sacramento region. And for the locals who say Sacramento summers have always been hot, that's true — but even acknowledging that, this hot stretch was unique.
Most years, it’s not unusual to see a daily high temperature record broken. For example, on July 6, the National Weather Service site in downtown Sacramento recorded a temperature of 113 degrees, breaking previous records for that specific day.
But this heatwave pushed even further than breaking just daily temperature records.
The weather service in Sacramento says the period from June 23 to July 12 was the all-time hottest 20-day stretch recorded in downtown Sacramento. The average high temperature during this time was 103.8 degrees, beating the last 20-day stretch record of 102.5 degrees set in 1984.
Dakari Anderson, a meteorologist with the weather service in Sacramento, said forecasted temperatures during this stretch were above 10 to 20 degrees above the norm for this time of year, making it an unusual heat event.
“Of course, it gets hot every year,” said Anderson. “But just the duration of the heat and how many days we had above 100, for example, were pretty unprecedented.”
A few hours north of Sacramento, Redding saw a record-breaking high temperature of 119 degrees on July 6. This surpassed all of the city’s previous record high temperatures for any day of the year since it began recording them over a hundred years ago.
Kate Forest, another meteorologist for the weather service in Sacramento, said it’s unusual to see heat of this magnitude this early in July.
“It’s also very anomalous to see so many days that were in … extreme heat risk in a row,” Forest said. “Historically, very few climate sites have hit two to four days in a row with extreme heat risk so prolonged.”
But it’s not always about the highs. Another notable part of this heat wave — and something we typically associate with more intense heat waves in the Sacramento region — were the overnight temperatures.
Usually, Sacramento sees some overnight relief thanks to the Delta breeze. But that breeze was much weaker during this hot stretch, and we saw overnight lows in the high 60s and 70s.
So, we’ve added another new color to our temperature blanket. It’s a tangerine orange, representing a weekly temperature average in the 90s. I crocheted two of these squares, coinciding with the last couple weeks where daily temperatures peaked well above 100 degrees.
Forest said hotter weather will definitely return, although it’s not expected to be as hot or as long as the previous heat event.
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