(NBC) It was 103 in Fullerton, and 102 in Long Beach. It was a mere 99 in Palm Springs.
The entire state was under a high-pressure dome. Forecasters were even predicting a high of about 85 degrees in The City, where the old saying goes: “The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.”
 
The mercury is expected to top out at 101 in Pasadena, one degree off the record maximum for this date, and Burbank’s projected high of 100 would be just short of the record of 103, said meteorologist Stuart Seto of the National Weather Service. The record in downtown Los Angeles for this date is 102, set in 1963.
 
A Santa Ana-like condition, where warms winds come down from the northeast and blow hot across the Southland toward the ocean, is responsible for the heat, he said.  “These northeast winds have warmer air with them,” Soto said. “As they descend into the valleys, they warm more. So we’ll see a pretty good (temperature) rise over most of the valley areas over what they were two days ago.”
 
The present condition doesn’t quite qualify for “Santa Anas” status because winds of 25-30 mph in the mountains and 15-25 mph in the valleys are not sufficiently strong or pervasive, Seto said.  The system also is relatively weak, he added, and should move out of the area by the weekend.
 
“We’ll have (the heat) today, and it’ll probably go into tomorrow,” he said. “But by Friday, we’ll see a return of the `June gloom.’ The coastal areas will cool a lot more rapidly.  “Probably by Saturday, we’ll see temperatures at the coast go down by at least 15 degrees from today.”