Cool News: NWS Says Heat Wave Is Officially Over

Clouds and cool air blowing in from the ocean will keep Southland temperatures at near-normal levels Thursday and over the next several days, meaning that the heat wave that began Aug. 5 and was seen likely to enter next week is effectively over, forecasters said.

Temperatures may remain a few degrees above normal, but that will be a far cry from the levels -- 10-15 degrees above normal -- of recent days, said National Weather Service meteorologist Curt Kaplan.

The high pressure that had kept things abnormally hot is now not as strong as it has been, Kaplan said, discussing the drop in temperatures. Additionally, clouds spinning in clockwise from Arizona and Mexico and an onshore flow will cool things down and make the weather "more normal," he said.

Since the heat wave bean earlier this month, temperatures in the Cerritos and Artesia area have ranged in the low to high 90s, and at some points the brutal heat prompted and alerts asking the public to curtail power usage to avoid the possibility of rolling black outs caused by strain on the power grid.

The NWS Thursday forecast is at a high of 88 degrees in the Cerritos-Artesia area, with temperatures ranging in the mid to high 80s for the remainder of the week. 

Coinciding with today's temperature drop is an infusion of monsoonal moisture, much of it out of Baja California, Kaplan said.

NWS forecasters said there is a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms this afternoon in the L.A. County portion of the San Gabriel Mountains, and a 20 percent chance in the Antelope Valley. Winds of between 15 and 25 miles per hour are forecast for both areas.

- City News Services contributed to this report.