More summer heat in store for Southern California

The humidity-laced summer heat wave that has blanketed much of Southern California this week is likely to stick around for a little longer.

A large area of high pressure has helped to usher in the heat and moisture to the region during the past few days, said Samantha Connolly, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in San Diego.

On Thursday, she said, San Bernardino and Riverside counties will see the mercury hover in the upper 90s, with a few areas pushing 100 degrees. The Inland Empire could get hit with  scattered storms, as well.

In parts of Orange County, temperatures are expected to rise into the upper 80s to the lower 90s while the coastal areas will see temperatures in the mid 70s.

Connolly said residents should avoid going outside on the hottest part of the day, keep hydrated and stay cool in whatever way they can.

Communities in Los Angeles County will see a high of 90s with some areas hitting 100 degrees, according to Lisa Phillips of the National Weather Service in Oxnard which covers Los Angeles County. Areas close to the beach will see a high of 79 degrees due to a sea breeze, she said.

Temperatures Thursday will be a few degrees cooler compared to Wednesday’s scorching weather.

On Wednesday, the San Gabriel Valley, San Fernando Valley, Santa Clarita Valley and portions of San Bernardino and Riverside counties were under a heat advisory.

Temperatures reached a high of 108 in Ontario, 107 in Van Nuys, 104 in Chatsworth, 102 in Riverside, 100 in Corona, 99 in Burbank, 95 in Santa Ana, 95 in downtown LA and 83 in Huntington Beach.

It was record-breaking heat.

Camarillo posted a high of 91 degrees which broke the record of 88 degrees set in 2018. Oxnard hit 90 degrees which toppled the 86 degrees set in 1974 and Santa Barbara reached 84 degrees which was two degrees hotter than the 2006 record.

In Glendale, more than 11,000 customers lost power during an outage, though the cause was not immediately determined.

During the outage, dozens of people, mostly office workers, were trapped inside elevators throughout the city, said Anita Shandi, spokewoman for the Glendale Fire Department.

“As soon as the power went out, we got a flood of elevator rescue calls,” Shandi said, noting that most were from high rises in the city, as well as some elevators in City Hall offices.

In all, fire crews were called to 25 elevator rescues, prying people out to safety, she said.