Wildfire smoke and clouds slightly cool Sacramento, National Weather Service says
A mixture of high clouds and drifting smoke from wildfires burning in Northern California produced a slight cooling effect in the Sacramento area during a scorching heatwave, according to the National Weather Service.
Over the weekend, high temperatures hotter than 110 degrees broke records in the region as the heatwave strained energy supplies throughout the state, produced rolling blackouts and prompted authorities to open cooling centers for those without air conditioning.
But Sacramento on Monday started cooling down about hour earlier than usual for a summer day and failed to reach any high records, even as wildfires continued to burn in the surrounding area.
The Jones Fire burning in Nevada County and fires sparked by lightning and burning in Butte County led to evacuation orders for some residents in those areas.
Hannah Chandler-Cooley, a NWS meteorologist, said the combination of the high clouds heading east from the Pacific Ocean into California and the wildfire smoke produced a cooling effect on the ground in Sacramento.
She said the high temperature in downtown Sacramento reached 104 degrees Monday, and the high temperature reached 105 degrees at Sacramento Executive Airport. The heat peaked Monday before 4 p.m., when the Sacramento area started to cool down, Chandler-Cooley said.
The wildfire smoke made it appear as the cloud cover was thicker and blocked more sunlight from reaching the ground, she said.
The Weather Service’s forecast for Sacramento shows a possible high of 112 degrees Tuesday and Wednesday’s high of 105 degrees dropping to 100 degrees by Thursday. The NWS issued an excessive heat warning that was set to expire at 9 p.m. Wednesday.
This story was originally published August 17, 2020 at 6:17 PM.
