Scientific American:

Last weekend, residents of Los Angeles and other areas of coastal California could be forgiven for thinking they had overslept like Rip van Winkle and woken up in the heat of September or, over the last few days, that they had suddenly been transported to humid Miami.

The disorienting weather has been the result of a combination of an unusually early, record-setting heat wave, monsoon conditions over the Southwest and the mountainous local topography. The heat has taxed the electrical grid, leaving thousands without power; endangered human health; and kicked off a flurry of wildfire activity. “It’s been quite the week,” says Daniel Swain, an atmospheric scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles.

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