03/31/11
After days and days of rain, the Bay Area is now experiencing a heat wave - even as the lingering effects of winter force new road closures and send hillsides sliding toward homes.
High-temperature records for the date tumbled Wednesday as spring checked in a few days behind schedule. San Francisco's 82 degrees eclipsed the 1987 mark by one degree, and Napa's 86 was four degrees higher than the old record set in 2001.
Other cities with record highs for March 30 were Santa Rosa at 85, Oakland at 83, San Rafael at 82 and Mountain View at 79, the National Weather Service said.
More records are likely to be set today, with above-80 readings expected virtually everywhere, the weather service said.
The warm weather is the result of a high-pressure system that has air flowing toward the ocean, a reversal of the Bay Area's usual pattern, said Tom Evans, a weather service forecaster.
"Normally, we have nice air-conditioned air from over the ocean blowing into our area, but in this case the flow is holding that cold air offshore," Evans said.
Northern California is still recovering from the recent storms. Landslides have imperiled homes in Hercules and San Pablo, and at 9 a.m. Wednesday, a huge slide forced the closure of Highway 101 just north of Garberville (Humboldt County).
The road could be closed for as long as two weeks in both directions, said the California Highway Patrol.
<SNIP>
No comments:
Post a Comment