Excessive Heat — Southern Sacramento Valley, California

2022-09-04 to 2022-09-09 · Southern Sacramento Valley, California

Event narrative

The Southern Sacramento Valley region saw all-time, monthly and daily record highs set, reaching up to 116 degrees during the event. On the 6th Downtown Sacramento recorded a high temperature of 116, which broke the all-time record high of 114 degrees set on July 17, 1925. This also broke the September record of 113 which was set the day before on the 5th. The previous monthly record of 109 was set on September 1, 1950, and tied on September 2, 1955 and September 6, 2020. The record of consecutive days over 110 was tied at 2. Daily highs were also set with 113 on the 5th and 8th and 109 on the 7th. The low of 80 on the 7th was the warmest on record in September and in all months was surpassed only on July 23, 2006, which had a low of 84. Sacramento International Airport set an all-time daily record high of 116 on the 5th and 6th, and also set a record of 4 consecutive days of 110 or higher. Sacramento Executive Airport set an all-time daily record high of 114 on the 5th and 6th. The Sacramento County Coroner attributed the death of one unhoused 49 year old man to the heat, having died while in a hospital.

Wider weather episode

Strong high pressure over interior northern California brought widespread high to very high heat risk to the region. Triple-digit high temperatures were observed across most of the Central Valley, Delta, and foothills through the first 9 days of September. The hottest temperatures were on September 5 and 6, when temperatures exceeding 110 were observed at many locations. All-time records were set on the 6th for Sacramento stations and tied in Stockton. Numerous daily and monthly record high-temperature were also set in the area. There was one death attributed to the heat in Sacramento County.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1057557. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.