At 93 degrees, Lake Forest was the hottest spot in the United States.
"We’re about halfway through the rain season, so we’ve only got February and March, and they better be a miracle," said climatologist Bill Patzert.
"It’s been a hot summer, a hot fall, and even now in the midwinter.
Downtown L.A. sweated through its hottest Thanksgiving (92 degrees) since records began being kept.
Rapf said heavy Santa Ana winds helped fuel the fire, but that the dry brush made the situation even more dangerous.
The snow in the Sierra Nevada, California’s greatest mountain range, has been disappointing compared with last year’s record-breaking season.
"Unfortunately, the water content of the January snowpack is only slightly higher than it was in January 2015, while we were in the middle of a crippling statewide drought," John Leahigh, executive manager of water operations for the State Water Project, said in a statement.
The water content in the northern Sierra Nevada snowpack was only 30% of normal for this time of year; a year ago, officials recorded it at 182%.
"In the Sierra, we had 10 strong ‘atmospheric rivers’ that affected the northern and central Sierra last year," said Chris Johnston, meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Reno office.
The U.S. Forest Service has estimated that more than 102 million drought-stressed and beetle-ravaged trees have died across 7.7 million acres of California forest since 2010 — unprecedented in the recorded history of the Sierra.

Dam levels in Gauteng stand at 94.3%‚ at 66.1% in the Free State and 80% in the Vaal Dam.
The worst dam levels are in KwaZulu-Natal (49.6%)‚ the Eastern Cape (59.6%) and Western Cape dams (26.6%).
These figures will be updated by the department on Tuesday.
“We encourage people to adhere to the restriction imposed by municipalities.
The latest projected date is April 20‚ but many experts believe it will arrive much earlier.
But it is not just the City of Cape Town that is facing water problems.
Zille informed the press on the current situation the City of Cape Town faces in terms of… Ratau said the department would continue to provide support to municipalities‚ depending on each council’s needs.
“Unless and only when consumers reduce consumption‚ will we be able to see a difference in consumption patterns.
We are a water scarce-country.
Secondly‚ the impact of climate change is real.”

Extreme heat broils the Dakotas and Montana; flash drought takes toll on wheat crop.
Temperatures in Montana, Wyoming and the Dakotas surged into the 90s and 100s on Wednesday, about 15 to 20 degrees above normal.
Forecast models predict the same general weather pattern that supported this heat to persist up to two more weeks.
Hot max temps yesterday in the western Dakotas/northeast MT show exactly where severe/extreme drought conditions are.
The sinking air underneath this heat dome has suppressed the formation of rain storms and rapidly dried out the land surface in the northern Plains and mountain West.
The dry pattern commenced in the spring but intensified in recent weeks as the western heat dome settled in.
Glasgow, Mont., had its record-driest April-through-June period.
The suddenness of the drought’s onset and expansion has been remarkable.
Eight weeks later, drought covered 47 percent of North Dakota, 34 percent of South Dakota, and much of the eastern third of Montana — and its intensity is severe to extreme in many areas.
“In northwestern South Dakota, South Dakota State University Extension staff reported poor pasture and range conditions as well as deteriorating crop conditions (corn),” the Drought Monitor said.

Two Danish students have developed "SolarSack" for inexpensive and environmentally friendly water purification.
Anders Løcke and Louise Ullmann, who study Architecture and Design at Aalborg University (AAU), have designed a better and cheaper system for purifying drinking water in developing countries.
The product, known as SolarSack, is a special bag that is filled with four liters of water and placed in the sun for four hours.
The user can then drink the water and reuse the bag for water purification.
But where a SolarSack supplies at least 500 liters of clean drinking water for a dollar, a bucket of coal provides less than 100 liters of water.
As part of their studies in Architecture and Design at Aalborg University, Anders Løcke and Louise Ullmann went to East Africa to investigate the problem.
There is plenty of sunlight in Africa, and it’s free," says Anders Løcke, AAU.
The two students behind the project just graduated from their program at AAU, and Anders Løcke will now work full time as CEO of SolarSack.
The Red Cross is also interested in the project.
The plan is to get SolarSack into production and distribute the product to NGOs and the private sector in East Africa.

Two Danish students have developed "SolarSack" for inexpensive and environmentally friendly water purification.
Anders Løcke and Louise Ullmann, who study Architecture and Design at Aalborg University (AAU), have designed a better and cheaper system for purifying drinking water in developing countries.
The product, known as SolarSack, is a special bag that is filled with four liters of water and placed in the sun for four hours.
The user can then drink the water and reuse the bag for water purification.
But where a SolarSack supplies at least 500 liters of clean drinking water for a dollar, a bucket of coal provides less than 100 liters of water.
As part of their studies in Architecture and Design at Aalborg University, Anders Løcke and Louise Ullmann went to East Africa to investigate the problem.
There is plenty of sunlight in Africa, and it’s free," says Anders Løcke, AAU.
The two students behind the project just graduated from their program at AAU, and Anders Løcke will now work full time as CEO of SolarSack.
The Red Cross is also interested in the project.
The plan is to get SolarSack into production and distribute the product to NGOs and the private sector in East Africa.

Extreme heat: Tips to stay cool during warm weather.
Older adults and individuals with chronic medical conditions During peak heat hours stay in an air-conditioned area.
Older adults and those on certain medications may not exhibit signs of dehydration until several hours after dehydration sets in.
Stay hydrated by frequently drinking cool water.
Stay out of the sun if you do not need to be in it.
•Outdoor animals should be given plenty of shade and clean drinking water.
Do not leave pets outside in the sun.
Ensure that cool drinking water is available.
Avoid drinking extremely cold water as this is more likely to cause cramps.
Coaches, teachers, and employers should seek immediate medical attention for those exhibiting signs of heat-related illness.

Wastewater could heat cities the size of Glasgow, finds report.
GLASGOW, Scotland – Sewers in Scotland contain enough heat to warm a city the size of Glasgow for more than four months a year, according to new data.
Figures released by Scottish Renewables found that 921 million litres are flushed down toilets and plugholes in Scotland daily.
With this water in UK sewers as warm as 21C, the group claimed that renewable energy technologies like heat pumps and wastewater recovery systems could be used to harness that energy potential.
Capturing such warmth could prevent more than 10,000 tonnes of harmful CO2 entering the atmosphere every year, new analysis has shown.
Scotland’s daily 921 million litres of wastewater and sewage are transmitted through more than 31,000 miles of sewers to over 1,800 wastewater treatment facilities.
That’s in addition to the energy that it gains from the sun when stored in reservoirs.
“Technology now exists which allows us to capture that energy, and waste heat can play an important role in helping us reach our challenging climate change targets.” Donald MacBrayne, business development manager with Scottish Water Horizons, added: “Water that is flushed down the drain from homes and businesses represents a significant source of thermal energy.
"Usually, this heat is lost during the treatment process and when treated effluent is returned to the environment.
By tapping into this resource using heat recovery technology we can provide a sustainable heating solution which brings both cost, carbon and wider environmental benefits.” ### Read more

Heat on for Australia’s Great Barrier Reef when global temperatures hit 1.5C.
These findings from University of Melbourne Scientists at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science, reported in Nature Climate Change, are the result of research looking at how Australian extremes in heat, drought, precipitation and ocean warming will change in a world 1.5°C and 2°C warmer than pre-industrial conditions.
There was no event where the Coral Sea was as warm as we saw in 2016 but as the globe warms these events will grow in number."
The researchers also looked at other extreme events, like the southeast Australian drought of 2006 and the rain events that led to widespread flooding in Queensland in 2010, to see whether they would occur more often as global temperatures increased.
The results came after modelling thousands of years under four different scenarios — pre-industrial conditions, current conditions, the world at 1.5°C and at 2°C — on supercomputers at National Computational Infrastructure.
The researchers then looked at four key extreme Australian events — the Angry Summer 2012/13; the Coral Sea marine heatwave of 2016; the severe rain event in Queensland in 2010; and the 2006 drought in southeast Australia — to model how often similar events could occur under each scenario.
"It quickly became clear that keeping global temperatures under 1.5°C had a clear benefit for Australia in terms of reducing extreme events and the costs that come with them," Dr King said.
Sea temperatures of the scale and frequency we have seen do not bode well for the future of one of our greatest natural wonders."
Story Source: Materials provided by University of New South Wales.
Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Urban ‘heat islands’ double costs for climate change.
Water Test Kit Test your Water Today!
The analysis of 1,692 cities, published today (Monday 29 May 2017) in the journal Nature Climate Change, shows that the total economic costs of climate change for cities this century could be 2.6 times higher when heat island effects are taken into account than when they are not.
Also according to the report, the authors noted that the study is significant because it highlights the importance of adopting local interventions along worldwide policies to keep global warming effects at bay.
Potential costs include more energy for cooling, increased air and water pollution, and lower worker productivity, the researchers said.
“We show that city-level adaptation strategies to limit local warming have important economic net benefits for nearly all cities around the world”, said Tol.
No surprise there.
Something not noted by the new study, though, is that as temperatures in these cities rise, so too will the rates of many infectious diseases – which will itself lead to greatly increased costs in some regards.
Cost-efficient local policies such as cool pavements – created to reflect more sunlight and absorb less heat – cool and green roofs and expanding vegetation in cities could limit the high economic and health costs of rising urban temperatures and help combat the urban heat island.
By the new study’s estimates, using such an approach to transition around a fifth of a large city’s pavements and roofs to cooler/lighter options could cut a city’s ambient air temperatures by up to 1.4° Fahrenheit (0.8° Celsius).

Scorching heat and no water supply!
Travails of 60% citizens yesterday.
Nagpur: Lack of power 45 Kms at Nawegaon Khairi on Sunday ensured the pumping station there could not send water to Nagpur and many overhead water tanks did not get filled.
This resulted in minimum or no water supply to almost 60% of the city on entire Sunday and first part of Monday.
On a day when heat had gone to an impossible high of 46.2* this was a heartless joke on most Nagpurians who could not run coolers, could not take a cool shower and some did not even have adequate drinking water!
Most wards in North, Central and East Nagpur were affected and one could see Corporators also running from pillar to post to help people out with water supply.
So irate was the public that in Wanjari Nagar an OCW employee involved with arranging water tankers was almost attacked by a mob.
OCW Public Relations Manager Sachin Darwekar has assured that today, i.e. Tuesday, all water scarcity will be gone and regular supply resumed.