Summerlike temperatures will arrive Wednesday during a February warm-up that will include strong Santa Ana wind gusts in Southern California.
Temperatures will climb to well above normal Wednesday, when highs in the mid-80s are forecast for much of the region. Similar temperatures are expected into the weekend.
Temperatures Friday and Saturday will be about 20 degrees above normal. Average temperatures for this time of year are generally around 67 in downtown Los Angeles, 68 in the San Fernando Valley and Riverside, 69 in Pasadena and 64 in Santa Monica.
"We're going to head into the mid-, even upper 80s," said NBC4 forecaster Anthony Yanez. "There are possible records going down as we move toward the end of the workweek."
The record high temperature for Feb. 11 in downtown Los Angeles is 88 degrees, set in 1971. The temperature climbed to a record 91 a day later that same year.
The heat will be accompanied by gusty Santa Ana winds, the strongest of which will arrive Wednesday and Thursday, and high surf. A west-northwest swell generated last week in the western Pacific will arrive late Wednesday and continue through Friday.
As of Tuesday afternoon, fire weather warnings were not scheduled to go into effect during the heat wave. A high wind warning is in effect Tuesday for parts of Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.
A 10-degree drop in temperatures is expected Sunday and another decline is in Monday's forecast.
The heat wave comes as the state enters a fourth year of drought that has left California's water reservoirs at critically low levels. State climatologists estimate the state would need at least 150 percent of normal precipitation by the end of the water year, which is Sept. 30, if California has any chance of significant drought improvement.
Photo Credit: NBC