Fiery Situation in California

Intense Heat Will Diminish as Wildfire Threat Continues.

Photos and video courtesy: Accuweather.com

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) - Gusty winds today could offset cooler temperatures and an onshore flow along the California coast as firefighters battle dozens of wildfires sparked by a weekend of dry thunderstorms and lightning strikes, AccuWeather.com reports.

Hundreds of lighrning strike generated fires broke out Sunday night in California's wine country, threatening over 100 homes and destroying at least one residence.

As reported by the Associated Press, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's office stated Saturday that the lightning sparked nearly 400 fires from Monterey County to the border of California and Oregon. Monterey County is located along California's central coast, south of San Francisco. More than 60 of the fires were started in the Shasta-Trinity National Forecast.

Intense Heat to Diminish

According to the AccuWeather.com West Regional Center, cooler air today will spread along the West Coast, following a weekend of record and near record heat in Southern California.

Downtown Los Angeles on Sunday reached 96 degrees, one degree shy of the daily high temperature record. By Wednesday, the high temperature will be 20 degrees cooler. The cooler air will not reach the central valley of California or the Desert Southwest, where temperatures continue to soar to or above 100 degrees.

A number of daily temperature records in California were broken or tied on Sunday: California's recorded temperatures:
* Beaumont: 105° (old record 101° in 1989)
* Camp Coop: 104° (old record 102° in 1960)
* Ramona: 103° (old record 99° in 1973)
* Yorba Linda: 101° (old record 100° in 1973)

The searing heat is spreading out of the Desert Southwest into the Rockies and the Front Range. While cooler temperatures move into the West Coast, the heat will shift to the east. High temperatures by Wednesday will be in the 80s in the Rockies and the 90s along the Front Range.

Wildfire Threat Continues

Gusty winds will add to the fire threat. Northwest winds of 20 to 30 mph with higher gusts will continue through tonight before weakening on Tuesday. Wind advisories are in effect in the mountains of Southern California. There will be no rain to help firefighters. According to Expert Senior Meteorologist John Kocet, "The dry season has arrived in the Southwest. Any rain that could develop will be insignificant, and will do nothing to help the fires."

The combination over the weekend of the heat and dry thunderstorms sparked hundreds of wildfires in central and northern California, including a fire in wine countr y and another that burned close to San Francisco International Airport. The weekend thunderstorms sparked as many as 75 fires in the Shasta Trinity National Forest in northern California, while as many as 90 fires burned in Mendocino County.

Here is the latest video weather report involving California's fires from Accuweather.com:

Source: Accuweather.com