Fresno reaches record high with more to come this week. Schools, eateries feel the heat
Fresno’s high of 114 on Tuesday blew past its previous record for the date set nearly 100 years ago, according to meteorologists, and came within a degree of the all-time mark.
The record of 115 degrees, set on July 8, 1905, still stands.
As it was, 114 tied for the second-highest all time. That temperature had been reached seven previous times — all in July, most recently July 11, 2021.
The National Weather Service says a high temperature of 113 degrees or higher has only occurred in Fresno 17 times since records began in 1887.
The city’s official weather readings are recorded at Fresno Yosemite International Airport.
The record for Sept. 6 had been 106 set in 1923 and tied in 1988, according to the National Weather Service in Hanford. Record highs have been forecast over the next couple of days as well with the expectation that highs will dip under 100 Saturday then trend down to the low 90s.
There were reports of air conditioner failure at the Fresno County Courthouse on Tuesday morning, and at some Fresno Unified School District schools amid the scorcher of a day.
Starr Elementary started an early release process because of the heat, according to Nikki Henry, the spokesperson for the district. Addicott Elementary had planned early release for the two hottest days of the week due to their medically fragile student population.
“Our maintenance and operations team are triaging HVAC issues and working to resolve quickly,” Henry said in an email. “Our teams are monitoring temperatures where students are as health and safety are of top priority. Principals will communicate directly with families if there are any HVAC issues that necessitate an early release.”
PG&E said equipment failure caused by the heat forced it to shut off power to 4,200 customers for several of the day’s hottest hours.
The heat also comes as many Fresno County restaurants have no respite.
When temperatures soar in the summer, these rural residents have few places to turn. The county government does not activate any dedicated cooling centers during periods of extreme heat, and state officials have said they can’t force county or local governments to do so.
In the absence of dedicated cooling centers, county representatives suggest residents of unincorporated communities cool off at existing air-conditioned facilities like libraries and community centers.
Restaurants and food trucks feel the heat
Fresno’s booming eatery and food truck population took a hit. The trucks generally don’t have air conditioning and add to the punishing weather with constantly heated griddles.
Places like Clash Coffee Boba and The Rec Room craft beer pub planned to call the day early, closing before the hottest parts of the day.
A number of food trucks — like Papi Churro and Luigi’s Italian — and other businesses like the Vineyard Farmers Market and Pacific Fried Chicken canceled plans altogether.
CA blackout threat ‘real and it’s immediate,’ Newsom says
After averting blackouts Monday night, the managers of California’s electricity grid had to navigate a day when energy consumption in the state is expected to blow past the all-time record.
The Independent System Operator said power demand was expected to peak at 51,431 megawatts. That would surpass the record 50,270 consumed in July 2006. The organization issued an “energy emergency alert” Tuesday morning, a kind of official early warning that supplies would be extremely tight.
It’s also about 300 megawatts higher than what ISO officials had been predicting just a day earlier for Tuesday’s outlook — a sign that the record heat wave is continuing to intensify, seemingly by the hour.
“We’re heading into the worst part of this heat wave,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a video posted Tuesday morning. “The risk of outages is real and it’s immediate.”
The Sacramento Bee contributed to this story.
