Bay Area heatwave now responsible for one death, no end in sight – Times Herald Online

The relentless intensity of a Bay Area heat wave that shows no signs of abating anytime soon can now be blamed for a death in the region, authorities said.

A homeless man in San Jose died from the effects of the weather. He was the first known victim of a heat wave that is expected to be a little cooler on Thursday but still exceed 86 degrees Fahrenheit in most inland areas, the National Weather Service said. San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan announced the death on social media.

“A homeless neighbor lost his life on our streets due to the heat,” Mahan said on X (formerly Twitter), adding that it was a “preventable tragedy.”

Most cooling centers in the region were scheduled to be closed Thursday for the Fourth of July holiday and reopen Friday. The Emma Prusch Regional Park Farm in San Jose was scheduled to be open from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m.

The Vallejo cooling centers at the JFK Library and Springstowne Library were closed on July 4, but are open Friday and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Dixon and Rio Vista libraries remained open Thursday despite the holiday and will remain open Friday.

According to weather.com, temperatures in Vallejo reached 91 degrees on Friday and are expected to reach that level again on Friday before cooling down to around 80 degrees on Saturday.

Benicia reached 95 degrees on Thursday and is expected to reach as high as 98 degrees on Friday and 91 degrees on Saturday. The Benicia library will be open as a cooling center from noon to 8 p.m. on Friday.

Livermore is expected to be the hottest place in the region. Highs of 106 degrees are expected Thursday, down from the record-breaking 110 degrees reached Wednesday. Brentwood, in far eastern Contra Costa County, is also expected to reach 106 degrees. Concord is expected to reach 104 degrees.

The South Bay won’t be left behind. Morgan Hill, one of the hottest spots in the Santa Clara Valley, is also expected to reach 104 degrees on Thursday. In San Jose, temperatures are expected to be just a few degrees below 100, reaching a high of 98.

The weather service has extended a heat warning that has been in effect since Tuesday by another 24 hours until July 10, 11 p.m. A wildfire warning for extreme fire conditions in the East Bay Hills and Santa Cruz Mountains has been extended until Saturday, 9 p.m.

Because of the heat, the city of Antioch had to cancel its annual Independence Day parade on July 4th.

“There may be a little light at the end of the tunnel around the middle of next week,” said NWS meteorologist Joe Merchant. “This extreme heat will continue inland and in the high elevations at least through the weekend.”

Merchant said a high pressure system had formed off the coast and was continuing to remain stagnant.

“It’s slowly moving east, really slowly,” he said. “But even on the backside, there’s not much relief. There’s nothing putting pressure on the storm or pushing it forward.”

The system is huge, Merchant said, and triple-digit heat is expected to make for another difficult day for firefighters battling the Thompson Fire in Butte County. It had burned 3,568 acres and was 7% contained early Thursday, according to Cal Fire. Authorities have evacuated 28,000 people.

On site, ConFire teams extinguished a vegetation fire next to State Highway 4 shortly after midnight. Because of the fire, authorities had to close the highway in both directions for several hours.

The brief cooldown of 3-4 degrees will only last one day. On Friday, temperatures are expected to rise again by the degrees they lost on Thursday. According to the weather service, temperatures of up to 110 degrees could be possible in some areas on Friday.