Valley is on track to break heat record; energy and air quality alerts issued

Summer is in full force in the central San Joaquin Valley — and Fresno is on track to break the record of consecutive days over 100 degrees.

Along with the heatwave, a heat advisory, an energy flex alert and an air quality alert have been issued for the region.

The record of 21 days at or over 100 was set in 2005, and as of Monday, the Valley is on its 18th day, according to Carlos Molina, meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Hanford.

He said there is a good chance the record will be broken with temperatures forecast to be in the triple digits through the weekend.

Still, Molina said, this July heatwave isn’t all that strange.

“It’s a pretty normal part of living in central California,” he said. “It’s not uncommon for us to get 16, 17, 18 days of 100 degrees.

Fresno summers average about 36 days of triple-digit temperatures, Molina said, and “we haven’t gotten 36 yet.”

A flex alert has been issued for Tuesday and Wednesday by the California Independent System Operator Corporation. It calls for voluntary electricity conservation from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. on both days to avoid power outages when the grid is under stress.

ISO recommends setting the thermostat at 78 or higher, turning it off when away, cooling homes with fans, closing drapes, turning off unnecessary lights and appliances, and using major appliances in the morning or late evening.

Pools and cooling centers around Fresno will be open Tuesday free to the public, the city of Fresno announced. Pools at Fresno, McLane, Sunnyside and Edison high schools will be open from noon to 5 p.m. and Hoover High School from noon to 2 p.m. Mosqueda, Frank H. Ball and Mary Ella Brown community centers will also open their pools from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

FAX buses will also give free rides to community cooling centers, which will be open from noon to 8 p.m.

An air quality alert has been in effect for foothill and mountain communities and the eastern part of the Valley since July 17 and will remain until the Ferguson Fire in Mariposa County is extinguished, according to the weather service.

Although the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District is showing only a Level 2 risk, the district warns that air monitors are not picking up the smoke from the Ferguson Fire or the Horse Creek Fire in Sequoia National Park because ash particles are larger than particulate matter particles, which is what the monitors are designed to detect.

“If you can smell smoke and see ash, that is an indication that you should be treating air quality conditions as a RAAN Level 4 or higher,” the district said.

Molina said a slight cooling of temperatures toward the end of the week could break the ridge of high pressure and assist with bringing in wind to help with heat and air quality.

A heat advisory is in effect from 1 p.m. Tuesday to 11 p.m. Thursday for the the Valley and foothills, including the Ferguson wildfire operation area, the weather service said.

Molina cautioned that even those who don’t believe they are sensitive to heat should drink water and stay in the shade.

“Just realize that even if you don’t feel the heat,” he said, “heat exhaustion can come on suddenly.”

This story was originally published July 23, 2018 at 3:18 PM.