LA County Just Had Its Hottest Temperature on Record

California's epic heat wave sparks wildfires, power outages
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 7, 2020 12:11 AM CDT
LA County Just Had Its Hottest Temperature on Record
Smoke from the Bobcat Fire is seen from California State Highway 39 in Azusa, Calif., Sunday, Sept. 6, 2020.   (AP Photo/Christian Monterrosa)

Heat records fell all over California on Sunday as an epic heat wave continued to sweep the state. Woodland Hills in Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley recorded a high of 121 degrees Fahrenheit, the highest temperature ever recorded in Los Angeles County, the Daily Breeze reports. Other areas in southern California had recorded all-time highs Saturday, including El Cajon at 114 degrees, per KTLA; the Mercury News notes that unofficial record highs were also recorded all over the Bay Area in Northern California. One particularly shocking stat: San Luis Obispo, on the state's Central Coast, recorded a high of 120 degrees Sunday, its highest temperature ever, per the Tribune. The city is just nine miles from the ocean.

"This is unmatched, just unprecedented, unreal," says one meteorologist of the SLO temp. "These are Death Valley temperatures." One climate scientist tweeted that the weather tracker @extremetemps "thinks San Luis Obispo's 120F reading may be hottest on record for so close to an ocean *anywhere in the Americas!" Across the state, the heat led to widespread power outages and sparked wildfires, and one hiker in southern California died Saturday after collapsing on the trail in an apparently heat-related incident, NBC News reports. The Fresno Bee has a terrifying story about a group of campers who got trapped by the fast-moving Creek Fire in the High Sierra. (More California stories.)

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