Hot Spell Expected To Send Temps Soaring In San Diego County

The fact that it's hot in August is not necessarily breaking news. How hot it gets, how long it will stay that way and how much of San Diego will be affected is a story. Forecasters say heat and humidity will increase today all through the weekend and excessive heat watch the inland areas set to go into effect Friday morning. Extremely hot weekend poses its own problems because many San Diegan's are used too much milder summer still have air conditioning at home. Today we will be talking about the weather and how to do something about it by keeping as cool as possible through the weekend. First we're joined by Alex tardy, is a meteorologist with the national weather service. Is his heat wave any different from the normal heat wave weekend in August? It's the time of year we are expecting this type of warm weather but this is stronger than the average heat wave so we talked about earlier in the spring and late in the spring that we're going to have a hot summer and now we're seeing the whites of his eyes. This is much above normal for temperatures. Depending on where you are, 5 to 10° above normal. In the mountains of 10° above, on the coast about 10, areas that are normally very hot, five or six or 7° above normal. What does that bring the temperature to? That gives our does it regions hundred 17. That things were Mona area of two 102 -- or 103. That things are coastal areas close to 90. Is going to be a lot of community also. We're seeing the humidity increased today. If you look to the East you will see some clouds forming over our mountains. That's the first indication of the monsoon flow from Mexico. That gives us are elevated humidity. The other way week it is in the ocean temperatures. Those who live on immediate coast, they can feel the higher committee as well. Is coming up from Mexico and the coast is being affected by the fact that the ocean is so warm. If you notice the past day, the low clouds and fog usually get that are indication of cool air coming off the water, those disappear. They are all but gone today. That's another indication the sea surface temperatures, but he was that cool air, that the air conditioner is not on anymore. Also our air conditioner at night isn't on anymore either because we're not getting very low temperatures? Know. We could hire humidity and very warm daytime temperatures, the thing we don't always look at is the nighttime temperatures. Those are a compounding effect so it accumulates over several days and me don't cool off at night, it's that much more important to be in an air-conditioned area. You'll be reading your AC at night for sure, not just during the day. What will the lowest be like? Low temperatures on our coast, jumping into the mid-70s. That's going to make it feel even more miserable over the next several days. Even if your temperature drops briefly to 7469 at night, it's only for an hour or two and doesn't help much. Is there a chance of rain with all this moisture surrounding us? I wish I could say yes. The chance for rain, we have seen some nice rainfall events in July this year. The chance of rain in this type of weather pattern is limited to our mountains. Maybe the desert slopes, an isolated thunderstorm or two, otherwise not expecting any rain. Expecting a whole lot of cloud cover to help us out either. It's nice to get hot in the day, you get a break, we don't expect much cloud cover other than a few cumulus clouds over the mountains. Even though it's quite humid, with these excessive temperatures, our fire danger increased during this heat wave? That's a good question. Some of the ingredients for higher, we know that when is a problem. We're not expecting a lot of when. Humidity is the other factor., We expect our humidity to be high. Did a thing we don't always consider which is a factor is daytime temperatures. Intense sunshine, start a fire in an area where it's really try, that can aggravate your fire danger by having very hot temperatures, the right time of the day, it makes it hard on the firefighters but also makes it easier for the grasses and the shrub and the brushes to burn. Paper easier when the temperature is high. I'm going to come back but joining us now is Dr. Bruce Haynes, medical director of emergency medical services for San Diego County. When you hear a heatwave like this is coming, what are your concerns? We're honestly worried about people becoming sick by trying to do too much, it's beautiful out a lot of people underestimate the danger that can go with working out are doing some sort of hard work in the hottest part of the day. People will go off hiking thinking their fit enough to do that but really they aren't. People take medications and illegal drugs that make it more dangerous for them. Many people seem to continue their outdoor activities, they are runners or joggers. To recommend that can heatwave? No. They need to take a careful look at what they are doing. Is it necessary or hardware, they have to do in the hottest part of the day or can they do it in the early morning or in the evening? People with a strong workout can develop the case of heatstroke. What about kids in club sport? The They will have to see how bad things get. Sometimes in the past those have been canceled or put off because of heat go some of the time you're in direct sun, if you can get away from under the sun, wearing brim hats or light-colored clothing that has loose fitting, he wants them drinking plenty of water, those are things that may help We're used to hot temperatures in San Diego for the periods of time but usually it's a dry heat. What does the humidity add to the factors that people should consider if they're going to be out and about doing this heat wave? Clearly the hire humidity is more dangerous from a medical point of view. That's another factor that people need to look at and think about before they trying to do too much and are overactive. As I said in the opening, there's a significant number of San Diegan's you don't have air conditioning. Many get to lots of heat waves by spending most of the day at work where there is air conditioning. This heat wave are going to be this weekend. What's -- will fans be enough to do the trick with temperatures this hot? The No. Electric fans when it gets this hot on as effective as we would like to see them, you are lowering the temperature and taking some of that heat load off the individual. If they could get out and get something really cool and air-conditioning for couple of hours and reset their thermostats, that's a huge help even if they aren't in air-conditioning all the time. We had our cool zones which you are aware. We have 130 air-conditioned buildings and cooling centers run by the counties. A lot of those are libraries and cutesy centers. You can call 211 on the computer cool zones.org for a list of locations and hours. We're first to our stories on McEntee cool zones, there's a lot of attention paid to seniors using these cool zones. Dr., are they for everyone? Can Emily's go there, just about anybody wants to cool off? I think there for everyone. The people were elderly may have more underlying medical problems that make them more susceptible to its, taking medications as I mentioned before. There first on my list in thinking about. I think it is for the whole family. That could really help them and we've seen area so they don't have this, there has been problems in other parts of the country and your. We have a he let wave -- when we have a heatwave like this are there lots of paramedic calls? We've been trying to look at that in the last couple heat waves to see if it predicts anything or if it helps us know how badly it is. We had a heatwave back in June I think it works there and showing us that the clinical conditions that people complained about, and called 9114, we saw those go up and they can help with planning and prognostication. They're getting all set for this weekend with all of that didn't you have to go through. What science should people look for that they may be getting sick from the heat? A lot of people have mild headache and feel not real well. That's not a problem. If they over exit -- overexert, they get heat cramps which is bad cramps in the muscles of the thighs and makes. You can drink sports drinks to try to avoid that, that can help with generally you want people if they're going to be out in the heat to keep up with their liquids. They may not realize they're getting dehydrated and not getting enough, they should just start to get right away when they get out in the heat cannot wait until they are thirsty. At some point that can transition to heat exhaustion were a few more symptoms, dizziness and nausea and headaches, that may take some intravenous fluids. Again getting the person out of the heat. Heatstroke has two diagnostic criteria. It's a much more serious and terms of confusion, teacher etc. Temperature over 104. Those of people who can die because their brain gets fried with high temperatures up to 105 and higher. With those people, you need to call 911 and move them to a shaded area, spray water on them, down them, then into a cool shower if they are alert. Those are people that can die from heat illness. Finally, is it a good idea for people to banded together and check on each other? Make sure an elderly neighbor is doing okay? So That's exactly what is to be done. There people who can become slowly ill and need to be taken out still cool spots or hospital if they are sick enough. I think family plays a big role in that and neighbors who are elderly I think checking on them every day is going to be a big help to avoid death. There are heat strokes waves a few places in the world like France with there's a substantial number of deaths that could have been prevented by just checking on them. Dr. Bruce Haynes, medical director, San Diego County Emergency Medical Services Thank you so much. I am also joined by Alex Tardy, meterologist, National Weather Service. I want to talk a little bit about the big news of today. That's the El Niño developing in the Pacific. How big it could be. It could be quite extraordinary. It's important to note it's already existing, it is out there. If you want to put a ranking on a -- it is 1.2° above normal which puts it in the moderate category right now. We know it's there and it's going to increase. Now it's a matter of how big will it get in terms of the sea surface ruptures. Expectations are for strong El Niño this fall. Next time we're sitting down here in the fall talking about it, it should be materializing into a strong evidence. Now it's a matter of getting a strong El Niño does that mean you'll get a lot of rain? Historically, the general answer is yes. It's not a one-to-one correlation. It's certainly not a correlation and ending drought. For northern California even if you have a strong El Niño, historically it has not been the answer. For Southern California it shows us a lot more storms, and unnecessarily bigger storms but a lot of them. When you have more storms you have more problems because you have more letting, Russian, debris flows, that type of thing. That they making the rounds of today is modeling the El Niño, the biggest El Niño on record from 1997 and the modeling that's happening now in the Pacific Ocean and comparing the two. When you compare the two, as a meteorologist, what are you saying. Right now it looks like we are second place. That was the big one. And resulted in a lot of rants that wasn't just a strong El Niño it also had the impacts, the warm water in the heavy rain and the flooding. We're pretty much neck and neck behind a. The expectations come this fall will probably be in the same category as 9790. The difference, it hosed down all of California. Lots of storms, nice snowpack. Whether we get that is the wildcard. The of expectations that we're going to be seeing the impact, November, all the way through the winter. At least for Southern California will seem more rain and snow. Whether or not it adds up to be just like the late 90s, that's difficult to say at the moment because the correlation isn't one-to-one. Thank you and we will keep up to date on this. Alex Tardy, meterologist, National Weather Service I've been speaking with Alex Tardy, meterologist, National Weather Service.