Is it fall yet? Relief from this heat wave may be days away in Sacramento, Central Valley

Summer won’t stop.

Downtown Sacramento roasted under yet another 100-degree day on Sunday, the start of yet another heat wave that is prompting yet another days-long heat advisory from the National Weather Service.

The temperature is forecast to hit 100 degrees on Labor Day in Sacramento. It’ll do it again on Tuesday. It’ll be even worse on Wednesday, closer to 105 degrees. More of the same Thursday. And basically the same again on Friday.

Heat waves like this aren’t unprecedented in September, said Idamis Del Valle, a meteorologist with the local National Weather Service office. But this one will be particularly hot, with forecast highs 10 to 15 degrees above normal.

Sacramento has hit 100 degrees or higher 29 times this year, Del Valle said Monday. While five days might feel brutal in September, the area actually has a ways to go before topping its record of triple-digit days in a summer: 41 days in 1988.

It’s a similar story to the south. So far this year, there have been 62 days of triple-digit heat in Fresno. The record for most days above 100 there is 63, set in 1984 — that record will likely fall this week.

Other heat records have been topped continuously this year as heat waves, worsened by climate change, become more frequent and intense. (Sacramento, in case you forgot, had two days above 100 degrees in May and the Pacific Northwest sweltered under unprecedented heat earlier this summer.)

Don’t expect much cool-off overnight this week either, forecasters say. Nighttime lows will also be unseasonably mild with readings ranging from the mid 60s to upper 70s across much of the Central Valley and surrounding foothills.

While crews have used light winds and a slight reprieve in temperatures to make progress on wildfires burning across Northern California, high temperatures will further dry an extremely parched landscape. That has forecasters worried as the fall season’s typically high winds kick into gear in the coming weeks and make dangerous fire conditions downright explosive.

Del Valle said there are no significant wind events in the short-term forecast.

It’s also unclear if this will be the last stretch of triple-digit heat of the year.

But there is reprieve: A slight cooling trend is expected for the weekend, with highs around a more reasonable 88 degrees.