By admin 
A heat advisory has been issued for Sacramento and the lower Sacramento valley between Saturday at 11 a.m. and Monday at 10 p.m. in anticipation of high temperatures between 94 and 100 degrees. Temperatures are expected to peak above 100 degrees in the foothills and further south in portions of the San Joaquin Valley.
Read more Statue of Ben Ali, California’s first Kentucky Derby winner, stolen from Del Paso Blvd.
For the well over 100,000 people set to stream into Discovery Park in Sacramento starting Thursday for the four-day Aftershock music festival, the weather will be a key concern. Sorry to disappoint — unless you love a good summer sweat — but temperatures this weekend will be on the hotter side as the Delta breeze shuts off.
Maybe October heat is to be expected as El Niño further influences the weather pattern, or maybe it’s the Latin rock band Ill Niño, set to perform at 2:45 p.m. on opening day. Either way, the festival will be a warm one.
High temperatures from Thursday through Sunday are set to be anywhere from 5 to 15 degrees above average across the Central Valley, and Sacramento is no exception. The highs will be well into the 90s through Sunday, with Saturday set to be the hottest.
Even the low temperatures won’t help out in the mornings. Normally in early October, Sacramento’s lows cool into the mid-50s by sunrise. An increase into the low to mid-60s may not seem significant, but it can make the difference between whether you want to open a window in the morning or evening.
The most comfortable day at the festival might be Friday. Despite high temps in the low to mid-90s, passing clouds from the ocean will offer some relief from the otherwise relentless sunshine.
Delta breeze locked away this weekend
What else will keep the heat on, and perhaps even more burdensome than it would be in the summer, will be the lack of the Delta breeze to bring in the relief as the sun starts to set. Sacramento’s otherwise reliable summer savior is not on the set list at Aftershock this year.
Read more Who are the 2026 Sacramento Change Makers? Meet all 60 leaders shaping our region
Thanks to a building high pressure ridge set to peak just southeast of California this weekend, there won’t be room for the normal breeze to squeeze into the Central Valley. Wind gusts will be capped at 5-10 mph from Friday onward. Thursday may catch a bit of what remains of the Delta breeze, but then it will virtually disappear until early next week.
That won’t be welcome for local air quality either. As the Dome Fire continues to burn in Yosemite National Park, there is the risk of some of the smoke sinking down and settling in the Sacramento Valley this weekend in the absence of any breeze to blow it away.
The heat continues into early October statewide
It is now firmly autumn as we fall into October, but this half of the month is set to feel firmly like summer. Central Valley high temps in the 90s are expected into the middle of the month as the high-pressure ridge stalls in place. The Delta breeze is likely to slowly return later next week, but above-average high temps will be firmly in place for some time for Sacramento.
The wrinkle in this forecast is Hurricane Rachel. Hurricane Polo is in part the reason for our above-average temps now through its influence on the jet stream, and thereby the amplified high pressure in place. Rachel could have a similar wild card effect on the overall weather pattern in a week’s time.
Either way, California will be under the influence of this stable October heat wave through at least the 8th, and potentially longer. An extreme hear watch has been issued for the Los Angeles metro area in anticipation of highs reaching 100 degrees on Saturday and remaining hot through next week.
The Climate Prediction Center is seeing this prolonged pattern as well, and has a forecasted a high likelihood of above average temperatures across California and the western U.S. through the next two weeks.
Read more NTSB releases first report into deadly Amazon plane crash at Miami airport
This story was originally published October 1, 2026 at 6:00 AM.