By Reginald Stanley. Posted February 27, 2026, 9:38 PM.

Strong high pressure aloft has brought a week of well above-normal temperatures across the region, with high temperatures peaking Friday afternoon.

Amid a week of warm, sunny and dry weather with highs in the 80s across the inland valleys, many communities reached or exceeded 90 degrees on Friday. In the WeatherCurrents network, Lake Elsinore reached the highest temperature on Friday with 96 degrees recorded there. This was the highest temperature recorded at WeatherCurrents' Lake Elsinore station since operations began there in 2005 (the previous record was 92 degrees in February 2025). In Murrieta, our WeatherCurrents station recorded a high of 92 degrees on Friday, also setting a record for the location (operations began there in 2003). Most other WeatherCurrents stations also recorded similarly warm temperatures Friday afternoon, mainly in the upper 80s/low 90s. In addition, the National Weather Service reported a number of record high temperatures broken across southwestern California - namely 96 degrees in Anaheim, 95 degrees in Santa Ana, 96 degrees in Escondido and even 100 degrees in Indio (tying a record set on the same date in 1986).

Onshore flow is forecast to begin bringing some relief to the region on Saturday, however high temperatures are still expected to approach record high temperatures once more, before temperatures cool further on Sunday. Dry conditions and above-normal temperatures will continue through at least the middle of next week.