While Tuesday was hotter than Monday, Wednesday is likely to be hotter still. The National Weather Service, together with fire chiefs, posted a Red Flag Warning for high winds, low humidity, and hotter-than-normal temperatures on Wednesday from noon through Thursday at 9 a.m. The thermostat should show temperatures up 10-17 degrees on Wednesday, with interior areas in the 105-110°F range. Cooling is expected on Thursday and Friday.
SoCal Edison is getting a jump on predicted lightning strikes and fire weather in Santa Barbara with its ongoing upgrades of poles and equipment, which means powering down areas of Santa Barbara County. However, it has canceled the outages scheduled for Tuesday due to fire weather, said David Eisenhauer, a spokesperson for Edison. These would have affected about 418 homes across Santa Barbara, Carpinteria, Montecito, and the unincorporated South County.
Another 279 households across Goleta, Santa Barbara, and South County areas are due for a shutoff on Wednesday, too. With an extreme heat warning in effect for that day, will air conditioners and ice makers continue to run? Eisenhauer said two sets of outages were still on the schedule, but the utility is evaluating doing the work depending on the weather.
