Beachgoers hang out at Ocean Beach in San Francisco amid sunny skies and warm weather on Sunday, Sept. 4, 2022. 

A “remarkable” heat wave in the Bay Area is forecast to push temperatures 20 to 30 degrees above normal, and the National Weather Service says it may feel more “like early August” than March.

“The strength of this heat wave is remarkable,” the weather service said in the forecast discussion for the Bay Area. 

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Rachel Kennedy, a meteorologist with the weather service, explained that high pressure is building above California, causing temperatures to climb. 

“We have a really impressive upper-level ridge building in over us, and that ridge is kind of acting as a heat dome,” she told SFGATE, “with the center over Southern California and the Arizona area.”

Kennedy said Monday and Tuesday are predicted to be the hottest days, with San Francisco and Oakland reaching close to 90 and San Jose forecast to reach a high of 94 as the ridge of high pressure strengthens. 

“It’s not moving anywhere. It’s just staying slam dunk over us, and that is essentially allowing our temperatures to keep heating up and warming,” she said. 

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Without anything to break up the high-pressure ridge, the warmer-than-average weather is expected to persist through the end of the month, though next week will probably see the hottest weather in the Bay Area, according to the weather service. 

While the Bay Area’s temperatures will likely start to climb dramatically this weekend, Southern California is already breaking heat records. The weather service reported Oxnard reached a temperature of 94 on Thursday, breaking the record of 86 set in 2015, and Camarillo reached a record-breaking 93 degrees. The weather service is also warning that Southern California is expected to see a prolonged heat wave, with dangerously high temperatures in much of the area through next week.

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