Sacramento passes another heat record: More days than ever above 100 degrees in a year
The mega heat wave baking California this week has already pushed Sacramento past an all-time temperature record, brought the state’s power grid to the brink of its capacity and shaped wildfire weather throughout the state.
Hold tight: We’ve still got two more days to go.
Downtown Sacramento’s astonishing 116-degree reading Tuesday marked the hottest day in city history, according to the National Weather Service, one day after Monday had become Sacramento’s hottest September day ever, topping out at 113 degrees.
For good measure, Thursday and Friday’s respective forecast highs of 109 and 110 would cruise past daily records set during World War II (107 degrees and 108 degrees, respectively, on Sept. 8-9, 1944).
Sacramento flew past another record during this heat wave, according to the weather service: Wednesday marked the 42nd time downtown has reached 100 degrees or hotter in 2022.
The tally should grow to at least 44, after this Thursday and Friday round out the current heat wave. The previous record was 41 days of triple-digit heat, set in 1988.
That works out to more than six weeks worth of triple-digit heat for Sacramento, in less than nine months.
Put another way: Just over one in every six days so far this year has reached 100 degrees, with two weeks of summer still to go.
The heat wave strained California’s energy grid, prompting flex alerts and threatening blackouts Monday through Wednesday, though the state and Sacramento Municipal Utility District have so far managed to avert rolling outages.
State officials credit that in large part to an unprecedented text alert Tuesday evening that warned millions of Californians to cut down on usage and raise their thermostats.
Mercifully, temperatures near Sacramento are expected to plummet nearly 20 degrees after Friday, with highs near 90 degrees in the forecast for Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Afternoon highs could dip to the low 80s by the middle of next week, weather service forecasts show.
Sacramento homeless head for shelter
On Wednesday afternoon, as temperatures in midtown Sacramento climbed to a dangerous 109 degrees, a handful of people found relief at a Sacramento County homeless cooling center.
The building, a Department of Human Assistance office at 28th and R streets, offered air conditioning, bathrooms and a water fountain.
“I’m so grateful,” said Christina Luft, 56, who lives in a tent, after she exited the building with her small dog and stroller. “I was asking for money all day in the heat, and it was affecting my dog. I’m so grateful for the A/C.”
Antonio Macias was also thankful to get his dog out of the heat. He sat on a chair in the building, his 7-year-old dog Ryder at his feet.
“I want to work but I have no one to take care of my dog,” Macias, 61, said. He sleeps in a tent outside City Hall.
Some unhoused individuals were disappointed the county did not provide water bottles and snacks until after the welfare office closed, at around 5 p.m.
“I said, ‘where’s the water?’” said Larinda Norman, who sleeps in her car, after exiting the building at around 4:30 p.m. “You’re supposed to stay hydrated. People die in this heat.”
In 2020, heat stroke contributed to the deaths of two Sacramento County homeless individuals, coroner records show.
The city’s cooling center provides water bottles, food, lounge chairs, TVs, dog kennels and other amenities, but it is about eight miles from downtown, at 3615 Auburn Blvd.
Too hot to shop?
Ashlee Sampson owns Larae’s Studio, a hair salon located in the Arden Fair mall. She says her shop can get really hot when she’s doing hair.
An extreme heat wave hasn’t made things better.
Sampson says this is the least amount of traffic she’s seen since she’s been at Arden Fair mall in February, with a decline in walk-in clients over recent weeks.
“There’s not that many people at the mall,” said Sampson, 33. “I’m really feeling like people are just going to wait until it cools off.”
Sampson said she can’t regulate the temperature of the salon: the mall regulates overall air condition. Each stylist or barber has their own fan to keep the shop circulating cool air.
“We’re at an all time high right now. You’re talking about triple digits and we’re not used to seeing that in September, especially in Sacramento,” said Sampson.
Fire rages in Placer County, plaguing air quality
All the while, major wildfires have sparked throughout California, including the uncontained Mosquito Fire that started Tuesday evening near the Placer-El Dorado county line. That blaze, reported Thursday morning by fire officials at nearly 7,000 acres, forced the ongoing mandatory evacuation of Foresthill and surrounding areas.
The Mosquito Fire as of Thursday morning was blanketing some of Sacramento’s suburbs and the outlying foothills with air quality ranging from “unhealthy” to “hazardous,” according to federal air monitors. Some of the worst air pollution was recorded near Auburn, Folsom, El Dorado Hills, Roseville and Citrus Heights.
Folsom’s zoo and aquatic center closed Thursday due to poor air quality, the city said.
This story was originally published September 8, 2022 at 12:05 PM.
