Excessive Heat — Southern Sacramento Valley, California

2020-08-18 to 2020-08-23 · Southern Sacramento Valley, California

Event narrative

Confirmed heat related death. The decedent was doing yard work in heat on August 22 and was found in his home before subsequently being taken to a local hospital. He died 3 days later. Downtown Sacramento's high temperature was 100 while Sacramento Executive was 97.

Wider weather episode

A heat wave was forecast for the initial part of this event; however, with many massive wildfires over northern California, intense heating was suppressed to wildfire smoke. Temperatures still rose to the mid 90s and low 100s, which was not much of a reprieve from the previous week's temperatures. A heat related death occurred during this time frame on August 22. The decedent was doing yard work in heat and fell ill. He was taken to Kaiser and died 3 days later.

In addition to lingering heat, a renewed chance of thunderstorms and fire weather concerns were forecast August 23 and 24. This generated a lot of media attention as the state just suffered from a widespread lightning event and it looked like another could form. Similar conditions were in place, with tropical moisture forecast to move over norther California; however, the system did not produce as nearly much lightning. Strikes generally remained confined, but not limited to, the west slopes of the Sierra.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 919557. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.