Severe heat, humidity blanket California
Some relief expected beginning today
LOS ANGELES – Much of California simmered in a stew of high heat and humidity on Thursday, bringing thunderstorms, causing power outages and leaving some school kids in overheated classrooms.
In Central California, firefighters said the state’s largest wildfire threatened to sweep through an ancient grove of Giant Sequoia trees considered to be a national treasure.
The sweltering, erratic weather was being generated by a ridge of high pressure over the state and the monsoonal flow of moisture from Tropical Storm Linda, the weakening former hurricane spinning in the Pacific about 400 miles southwest of San Diego.
The weeklong heat wave, which has produced triple-digit temperatures up and down the state, was expected to start receding today.
Heat advisories extended from San Diego north to San Francisco and beyond, although fog that swaddled the Golden Gate and cooler temperatures along the immediate Bay Area coast presaged a gradual return to normal summer weather.
In Kings Canyon National Park east of Fresno, firefighters were clearing lines with bulldozers around the Grant Grove of Giant Sequoias and putting up sprinklers, said Andy Isolano, a spokesman for the Clovis Fire Department.
Isolano said that although the trees can endure fire, some are stressed in the four-year drought and they’re not taking any chances because the fast-moving flames are about 5 miles from the grove.
The grove is named for the 268-foot-tall General Grant tree. There are dozens of Sequoia groves in the Sierra Nevada.