Hot weather expected to stick around

The heat and thunderstorms hit early and hard Thursday, and the high temperatures aren’t expected to go away anytime soon, a National Weather Service meteorologist said.

Tuesday morning’s cloud layer wasn’t present Thursday, so “the sun could get out right away,” said Stan Wasowski of the weather service.

Lindbergh Field reached 80 degrees by 10 a.m. and hit 84 by 3 p.m., according to the weather service. Montgomery Field was up to 95 degrees by late morning.

Temperatures reached 101 in Ramona, 99 in Poway and 98 in Santee.

A powerful mid-afternoon thunderstorm brought rain to the mountains and caused a mud and rock slide on Highway 78 near Sutherland Dam Road, according to the California Highway Patrol. A CHP officer reported “heavy lightning” in Julian.

There was also a strong thunderstorm in the morning in the lower East County foothills.

The storms caused power outages to about 9,500 customers, said Allison Zaragoza of San Diego Gas & Electric.

The most out at one time was 8,200 around 2 p.m., in areas ranging from El Cajon to Pine Valley and Jacumba, Zaragoza said.

As soon as those customers regained power, another 1,300 customers lost electricity between Ramona and Julian, Zaragoza said.

“Those are suspected to be caused by lightning and weather-related issues,” Zaragoza said.

All but about 400 customers had power restored by 5 p.m.

Wasowski said we’ll be “really lucky” if it cools down by a couple of degrees on Saturday, and that it could remain hot into the foreseeable future.

The good news is the humidity will probably go away, so even though it will remain hot, it should feel more comfortable, Wasowski said.

Wasowski said the remnants of Hurricane Jimena are no longer expected to impact San Diego County.