San Diego County will get hit by a strong heat wave starting on Monday rather than on Wednesday, says the National Weather Service, which updated its forecast overnight.

The latest forecast says that the heat wave will last Monday through Wednesday and that temperatures at or near the coast will heat 80 degrees. Temps will reach 85 to 90 in places like Miramar, and 95-105 in some of the county’s valleys and foothills.

It doesn’t appear that strong winds will blow during the heat wave. However, firefighting agencies and utilities are gearing up for the possibility of wildfires. The county has only received about 3.3 inches of rain during the current season — a figure that’s about 7 inches below average. The back country is very dry.

There’s also a concern that the winds will pop up unexpectedly, and spread wildfire quickly — the sort of thing that happened during the West fire in the Alpine area earlier this month.


Forecasters also note that a sizable swell out of the west-southwest will begin arriving in San Diego (especially North County) late Saturday and will build into the early part of next week. That will produce dangerous rip currents along the entire coastline.