Unless you’ve been holed up in a nice cool cave — and there aren’t that many of those in the Fresno area — you are already all-too aware of just how hot the month of July has been here.

Right now we’re rocking along at a solid 93 degrees. That’s more than 4 degrees hotter than the all-time average temperature high record of 88.7 degrees that was set only three years ago.

The average is the midpoint between daily low and high temperatures, and it goes up when overnight lows are in the upper 70s to low 80s and daytime highs are 105 and higher, as they have been in Fresno for much of the month.

And triple-digit temperatures? They started on July 1 and show no sign of abating through the end of the month. Meteorologist J.P. Kalb of the National Weather Service in Hanford said Tuesday that the eight- to 14-day forecast is for a 50 to 60% probability of higher-than-average temperatures. That increases the likelihood that the mercury will keep climbing above the century mark each day.

Last week’s forecast had provided a small glimmer of hope that the triple-digit streak would end on Wednesday, but what a difference a few days can make. The forecast high now for Fresno on Wednesday is 100, followed by 104 on Thursday, 105 on Friday and Saturday, 106 on Sunday, 109 on Monday, and 111 on Tuesday, Kalb said.

Dangerous Heat Returning

What’s causing the arrival of yet-another dangerous heat wave over Fresno? A high-pressure ridge is pushing westward atop the Great Basin area of the desert West, Kalb said.

Fresno came close to setting a new record for the number of days of 105 and above this month, but the 13 days was only second-highest. The all-time record of consecutive days of 105 or above was 14 days in July 1988. (Those of you who were around here in 1987 may be wistfully recalling that July 1987 had only three triple-digit days. Ahhhhhh ….)

If every day this month records high temperatures of 100 degrees or hotter, it will break the record of 28 days set in July in 1906, 1931, and 2018, according to National Weather Service climate records for Fresno.