Heat Advisory Issued for Los Angeles County This Week

Burbank is under a Heat Advisory this week, with temperatures expected to climb into the mid-to-upper 90s Thursday and Friday in what forecasters say is a historically early and abnormally intense heat event for March.

The National Weather Service issued the advisory for most of Los Angeles County, including Burbank, effective from 10 a.m. Thursday through 8 p.m. Friday. The NWS is warning residents of temperatures between 90 and 100 degrees across the region, with peak heat Thursday carrying the potential to break records set nearly two decades ago.

“It’s going to feel like summer in the coming days,” NBC Los Angeles meteorologist Belen De Leon said Wednesday.

The timing is the story here. Downtown LA’s first 90-degree day typically falls around May 8. Its first 100-degree day averages around August 10. This week’s heat arrives anywhere from two to five months ahead of those benchmarks. De Leon noted that early heat has happened before in Southern California, but called it rare. “We’re not strangers to the heat in Southern California, but this is above where we should be for this time of year,” she said.

Downtown LA is forecast to hit 96 degrees Thursday. Those numbers represent an 11-to-16-degree jump from Wednesday’s temperatures across the region, a spike residents will feel immediately stepping outside.

For Burbank specifically, that means afternoon temperatures pushing into dangerous territory for outdoor workers, elderly residents, children, and anyone without reliable air conditioning. The city’s wide stretches of sun-baked commercial corridors along San Fernando Boulevard and Olive Avenue, plus the flatland neighborhoods east of the 5 freeway, tend to absorb and hold heat. Residents in older housing stock without central air should take the advisory seriously.

The heat advisory covers a wide swath of the county, including Glendale, Pasadena, the San Fernando Valley communities of Northridge, Chatsworth, Van Nuys, and Woodland Hills, as well as coastal areas from Santa Monica to Malibu and down through Long Beach and Redondo Beach. The advisory also extends into Orange County, Ventura County, and the Inland Empire.

Record-breaking temperatures are possible at several Southern California stations Thursday. Riverside is forecast to hit 94 degrees, approaching its March record of 95 set in 2007.

If you need to be outside Thursday or Friday, the NWS recommends limiting strenuous activity to the early morning hours, staying hydrated, and checking on neighbors who may be vulnerable. The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health typically activates cooling centers during heat advisories. Residents can call 211 or visit the county’s website to find the nearest location.

The Burbank Public Library branches at Buena Vista and Central, along with the Gordon R. Howard Community Center on Olive Avenue, are air-conditioned public spaces where residents can take refuge during peak afternoon hours. Check with each facility for current operating hours before heading over.

The advisory drops at 8 p.m. Friday, with temperatures expected to moderate heading into the weekend. But the two-day stretch before that will test the city’s older infrastructure and push demand on the power grid, so residents should also be mindful of conservation during peak hours, typically 4 p.m. to 9 p.m., to help reduce the risk of outages.

The last time Downtown LA topped 90 degrees was February 27, when the high hit 91. The last time the region saw triple digits was September 9, 2024, when Downtown LA reached 105 degrees during a prolonged late-summer heat event. This week’s forecast, arriving in March, lands in a different category entirely.

Stay out of the midday sun, keep water on hand, and check on your neighbors. Burbank can handle the heat, but there is no reason to push through it unnecessarily when a stretch of real summer weather showed up three months early.