Inland and valley areas will continue to scorch in triple-digit heat Saturday, but afternoon highs should be a couple of degrees lower than Friday as a cooling trend gets under way.
Traditional San Fernando Valley hot spot Woodland Hills hit 106 degrees Friday, tying a record for the date set in 2004. Saturday's high is forecast to be 104 degrees.
But with rising humidity levels, it may feel about the same, National Weather Service Meteorologist Todd Hall said.
"It may be a wash as far as how the human body perceives it," Hall said.
The fog that typically forms along the coast overnight could be dense shortly after sunrise, but it should burn off by midmorning.
"With the ocean water so warm—temperatures are in the mid 60s—it's very difficult to get fog forming over it," he said. "We have a little more moisture. We'll see some increasing cloud cover, perhaps thunderhead buildups over the mountains."
A 20 percent of thunderstorms is forecast for the San Gabriel Mountains, and high-valley locations, such as Santa Clarita, may feel particularly sticky due to humidity associated with monsoonal moisture being drawn into the region from the south by a clockwise-rotating, high-pressure system.
Sunday's highs should be 2-3 degrees cooler than today. By Tuesday, valley highs may dip below 100 degrees, according to the NWS.
Electricity demand driven by air conditioning use prompted the manager of the state power grid to issue a "Flex Alert" Friday. The call to conserve electricity was initially expected to be in effect through the weekend, but it was canceled yesterday.
Several high temperature records were broken Thursday. Woodland Hills topped at 109, as did Lancaster.
Overnight lows in the valleys were expected to bottom out around 70 degrees.
