Half a dozen Bay Area cities tie or set new heat records

Gilroy tops the list with a high of 107 degrees; 114-year-old record falls in Santa Cruz

MONTEREY – Half a dozen Bay Area cities tied or set new daily heat records as temperatures soared across the Bay Area on Friday, according to the National Weather Service.

Gilroy topped the list with a high of 107 degrees, tying a record set in 1996. The mercury shot to 106 degrees in Santa Rosa, handily beating the record of 101 set last year. Santa Cruz shattered its 114-year-old record of 96 degrees with a high of 105.

New records were also set in Napa (104 degrees), San Jose (103), Redwood City (102), Kentfield (102), downtown Oakland (100), San Francisco International Airport (99), Richmond (96), downtown San Francisco (95) and Half Moon Bay (82).

Just outside the Bay Area, King City in Monterey County recorded a high of 109 degrees, surpassing last year’s record of 102.

The blistering temperatures were the product of a high-pressure bubble, according to the weather service. On Friday, the weather service changed an excessive heat advisory to a more serious excessive heat warning, which will run through Wednesday.

Increased electricity demand due to the high heat led the California Independent System Operator to declare a Stage 3 Electrical Emergency, spurring statewide rolling blackouts for the first time since 2001. The outages were expected to impact 200,000 to 250,000 customers in the Bay Area, according to Pacific Gas and Electric Co.