Publication Date June 18, 2017 | East Bay Times

Heat records fall throughout the Bay Area; blistering temps ahead

United States
Windy Tinoco, 7, enjoys her family's outdoor inflatable pool in the front yard of their home in the Burbank neighborhood in San Jose, Calif., on Sunday, June 18, 2017. Photo: Nhat V. Meyer, Bay Area News Group
Windy Tinoco, 7, enjoys her family's outdoor inflatable pool in the front yard of their home in the Burbank neighborhood in San Jose, Calif., on Sunday, June 18, 2017. Photo: Nhat V. Meyer, Bay Area News Group

Heat records were melting away just as quickly as Bay Area residents’ will for the outdoors Sunday, with high-90 and triple-digit temperatures turning neighborhood streets into desolate asphalt skillets abandoned for the relief of swimming pools, air-conditioning, and whatever shady spots were around.

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It was so hot Sunday — Pittsburg recorded a Bay Area-high of 111 degrees, and Concord and reached 108 — that the NWS extended a heat advisory for the Bay Area until 9 p.m. Thursday, advising Bay Area residents to avoid heavy activity in the heat and reminding them not to leave kids or pets in their cars.

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Records for June 18 toppled in all corners of the region. San Francisco saw 88 degrees downtown, up from the 1993 record of 86. San Jose was 103 degrees, sailing past the previous record of 99 in 1945. Oakland saw a high of 97, surpassing the benchmark of 93 set in 1962.

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The heat increased as a high-pressure system settled in over the Bay Area, simultaneously redirecting any cooling flow away and trapping the heat and other particles low in the atmosphere — a weather pattern typical for the Bay Area in the summer months, [National Weather Service meteorologist Charles Bell] said. The pattern also dirtied the atmosphere enough that the Bay Area Air Quality Management District issued a Spare the Air alert for Sunday, the third of the summer season.

A slight bit of moisture in the air also is trapping the heat, keeping things warm at night, Bell said.