Climatologically, July is our hottest month of the year, and this July is certainly living up to that. High temperatures in the San Joaquin Valley have hit the century mark consistently this past week, and we can expect that to continue next week – which is pretty normal for July.
Last week was a hot one in the Valley – Fresno hit 107 last Wednesday, it’s hottest day in almost 2 years. But the heat has backed down a little after that, and most cities in the Valley avoided triple digits on Saturday. Merced saw a high of only 93 on Saturday, Madera and Los Banos hit 95, Fresno and Hanford both reached 98, while Porterville and Visalia were the hot spots at 99. Those highs are the textbook signature of the Delta Breeze in action – cool air from the Pacific that surges into the Valley through the Sacramento/San Joaquin River Delta (and Pacheco Pass), flows down & cools down the Valley from there, finally running out of cool towards the southern end of the Valley. Cities closer to the origin of the Delta Breeze (like Merced, Los Banos, and Madera) were 3 to 5 degrees cooler than others further to the south. That’s pretty common in July.
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