A significant heat wave is on the way to Santa Barbara County and could affect “most places” away from the coast, according to the National Weather Service.
“You only have to go a mile or two inland to get the hottest weather we’ve had so far this summer,” said Ariel Cohen, a meteorologist in the NWS Oxnard Office.
Thursday and Friday will be the hottest days for Santa Barbara County, which will have an extreme heat watch in effect for the Santa Ynez Valley, Santa Ynez Mountains and Cuyama Valley.
The Santa Ynez Valley is expected to have daytime high temperatures in the 90s Wednesday through Sunday, and the Cuyama Valley will be in the low 100s.
Santa Barbara and the South Coast will have daytime high temperatures in the high 70s and 80s.
The Santa Maria and Lompoc valleys will have daytime highs in the 70s and 80s this week, according to the NWS forecast.
Check the latest weather forecast and NWS alerts here.
Fire Weather Watch
There will also be a fire weather watch in effect later this week and weekend due to hot and unstable conditions, Cohen said.
“If a fire were to form, explosive growth is definitely going to be a concern,” Cohen said.
The forecast is for similar conditions seen when the Lake Fire started in July 2024, he noted.
The Gifford Fire, which started Aug. 1 and was 91% contained Monday, expanded significantly even without strong winds, Cohen said.
Topography, dry vegetation, and changing winds contributed to that fire’s rapid growth, topping 23,000 acres within the first 24 hours.
The Gifford Fire area is included in this week’s fire weather watch, and the weather could create “explosive growth of any holdovers,” Cohen said.
The State of the Gifford Fire
Incident commanders of the wildfire said Monday that crews are decreasing the number of smoldering hotspots along the perimeter on the northern end of the fire.
“South of Highway 166, the heat sources are isolated and located well within the boundaries of the fire,” officials said.
Since starting Aug. 1, the Gifford Fire has burned 131,589 acres in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties.
Over the weekend, the firefighting force assigned to the blaze dropped from about 5,000 people to about 3,000 as crews made major progress on containment.
Most work has transitioned from fire suppression to recovery, incident commanders said.
“Crews are now focused on restoring dozer lines, trails, and other areas affected by suppression operations — pulling berms back into place, scattering soil and vegetation, and recontouring bare ground to reduce erosion, improve drainage, and support natural recovery,” a Monday report said.