{"id":24840,"date":"2026-03-17T18:49:34","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T18:49:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/?p=862309"},"modified":"2026-03-17T18:49:34","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T18:49:34","slug":"los-angeles-us-west-brace-for-second-bout-of-record-march-heat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/2026\/03\/17\/los-angeles-us-west-brace-for-second-bout-of-record-march-heat\/","title":{"rendered":"Los Angeles, US West Brace for Second Bout of Record March Heat"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/img\/social\/opengraph\/ij-social-default-1200x630.png\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><\/div>\n<ul class=\"nav nav-tabs tabs tabs-entry\">\n<li class=\"active\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/news\/west\/2026\/03\/17\/862309.htm\">Article<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/news\/west\/2026\/03\/17\/862309.htm?comments\" rel=\"nofollow\">0 Comments<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"article-content clearfix\">\n<p class=\"bloomberg\">Los Angeles and the U.S. Southwest are set for a second record heat wave in two weeks as temperatures soar, potentially straining electric grids, melting snowpack and raising health risks.<\/p>\n<p>Tuesday\u2019s high in downtown Los Angeles is forecast to reach 97F (36C), possibly climbing to 98F by Thursday, according to the National Weather Service. Commercial forecaster AccuWeather Inc. said temperatures may rise as high as 99F, which would tie March 29, 1879, for the warmest March reading on record.<\/p>\n<div class=\"bzn bzn-sized bzn-intext\">\n<ins data-revive-zoneid=\"79\" data-revive-block=\"1\" data-revive-id=\"36eb7c2bd3daa932a43cc2a8ffbed3a9\"><\/ins> <\/div>\n<p>Heat advisories and excessive heat warnings span parts of Nevada, Arizona and California, extending to San Francisco, with temperatures forecast to be 15F to 30F above normal.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe L.A. area really starts to fire up today,\u201d said Tyler Roys, a meteorologist with AccuWeather. \u201cBasically, it is record-breaking heat for many places.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Through next Monday, 450 daily high-temperature records may be broken or threatened across the US, most in the West, the US Weather Prediction Center said. An additional 334 record warm overnight lows also may be set or tied.<\/p>\n<p>The early heat will drive up energy demand as residents and businesses turn to air conditioning. It will also dry out vegetation, raising wildfire risk.<\/p>\n<p>A bigger concern is faster snowmelt in the mountains, which would reduce this year\u2019s water supplies for California and other western states. Unlike the eastern US, which typically receives regular rainfall, much of the West relies on winter storms and mountain snowpack as a natural reservoir that stores water through the winter and releases it gradually in the spring and summer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat we have to be worried about is this heat dome is going to start the melting process of the snow in the higher terrain,\u201d Roys said, meaning that what the state needs in the summer \u201cwon\u2019t be there.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"bzn bzn-sized bzn-intext-2\">\n<ins data-revive-zoneid=\"162\" data-revive-block=\"1\" data-revive-id=\"36eb7c2bd3daa932a43cc2a8ffbed3a9\"><\/ins> <\/div>\n<p>California had its second-warmest winter on record, according to the US National Centers for Environmental Information. All-time high temperatures in nine states have left the region with below-normal snowpack. As of March 12, Colorado had its lowest on record, the National Integrated Drought Information System said.<\/p>\n<p>For California, the worst of the heat will last through Friday, said Brian Hurley, a senior branch forecaster at the US Weather Prediction Center. While such temperatures are typical in July, they are unusual for March and will force Californians and residents in other parts of the West to act as if summer has arrived.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe biggest thing is it\u2019s going to be unseasonably warm early,\u201d Hurley said. \u201cThat is really the main story.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"copyright-notice quiet\">Copyright 2026 Bloomberg.<\/div>\n<p class=\"tagtag\"> <span class=\"tagtag\">Topics<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/location\/usa\/\" class=\"btn btn-sm btn-primary tagtag\">USA<\/a> <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"article-poll\" data-post=\"862309\">\n<div class=\"article-poll-vote\">\n<p>Was this article valuable?<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"article-poll-feedback voted-no\">\n<form class=\"feedback-form\">\n<p>Thank you! Please tell us what we can do to improve this article.<\/p>\n<p> <textarea placeholder=\"Enter your feedback...\"><\/textarea> <button type=\"submit\" class=\"submit\" disabled>Submit<\/button> <button class=\"cancel\">No Thanks<\/button> <\/form>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"article-poll-feedback voted-yes\">\n<form class=\"feedback-form\">\n<p>Thank you! <span class=\"percent\"><\/span>% of people found this article valuable. 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Tuesday\u2019s&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24841,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[520,1,1904,1573,9],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/los-angeles-us-west-brace-for-second-bout-of-record-march-heat.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24840"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24840\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}