LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Southern California isn't going to warm up too much Tuesday as the region continues to see frigid temperatures, especially during the early morning hours.

The National Weather Service issued a wind advisory that will take effect at 10 a.m. Tuesday and continue through 4 p.m. Wednesday, followed by a high wind watch that'll be in effect from Wednesday afternoon through Thursday afternoon in the western Antelope Valley foothills and the 5 Freeway corridor.

Forecasters said winds of 20 to 30 mph were expected Tuesday into Wednesday, with gusts up to 55 mph possible. Conditions will worsen Wednesday afternoon, with gusts of 60 to 70 mph possible, according to the NWS. A similar high wind watch will be in effect Wednesday afternoon through Thursday afternoon for Catalina Island, the Malibu Coast and western Santa Monica Mountains Recreational area, where gusts could also reach 60 to 70 mph.

"Damaging winds could blow down large objects such as trees and power lines,'' according to the NWS. "Power outages are possible. Travel could be difficult, especially for high profile vehicles.''

Here's what Tuesday's temperatures will look like:

Los Angeles and Orange counties on Tuesday can expect a high of 64 degrees, dropping to 42 overnight.

The valleys and the Inland Empire can expect some morning frost with a high of 64, dropping to 33 overnight.

Beaches will see a high of 60, with strong winds and high surf of 2-3 feet.

Mountain areas will see a high temperature of about 47, dropping to 10 overnight.

Deserts will see a high of 56 degrees, with strong winds, dropping to 29 overnight.

City News Service, Inc. contributed to this report.

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Brace yourself – the California Energy Commission (CEC) recently dropped a 600-page draft of updates to the 2025 state building code. If you can get through it, you’ll find a lot of really thoughtful changes (our comments on the draft). One particular bright spot is the push toward installing heat pumps or “smart” ACs in existing buildings, instead of outdated one-way air conditioning (AC) units.

Consumers have two primary technologies available for adding cooling to homes: central air conditioning and heat pumps. A heat pump is nearly identical to a central air conditioner with one small but important difference: a reversing valve that allows it to provide heating or cooling.

As shown in our analysis, this reversing valve has minimal additional equipment cost and the install process in most buildings is the same as a traditional AC. But consumers, businesses and schools gain the option to efficiently heat their homes with clean electricity – instead of burning a polluting fossil fuel.

The draft regs don’t ban one-way ACs or require the removal of gas furnaces, existing furnaces can be left in place. Instead, they require a contractor to either install a heat pump or include additional efficiency improvements with AC installation to make up for the lost efficiency savings a heat pump would have provided. Given that most people have no idea that they could get two appliances in one, encouraging heat pump installations at the time of AC replacement could lead to a wave of new installations across the state.

Every AC-only installation is a missed opportunity to advance the clean energy transition with a heat pump. According to recent analysis, if California converted the entire market for central AC to heat pumps, we could electrify space heating in more than half of California homes by 2030, compared with just 19% of homes given our state’s current trajectory.

This single step would take a huge bite out of emissions from homes and buildings, and significantly advance Governor Newsom's goal of deploying 6 million heat pumps in California by 2030. Using heat pumps for both space and water heating cuts climate pollution from the average California home by more than half over the next 15 years compared to homes that burn gas.

Avoiding the installation of one-way ACs now will also save families money and hassle down the road, as the California Air Resource Board (CARB) moves toward zero-emissions appliances standards in 2030 which will require heat pumps to be installed instead of polluting gas furnaces. This rule is already in place in the Bay Area, where starting in 2029, when a gas furnace burns out it will need to be replaced with a heat pump thanks to newly approved air quality regulations.

Households that install a central AC system now, just to have their furnace burn out a few years down the line, could end up paying for two expensive cooling systems when they could just pay for one. But who is thinking about these future regulations when they are just trying to get their AC replaced on a hot summer day? A reversing valve should be in every AC unit in the state as standard practice, to avoid this wasted opportunity.

The same opportunity exists for the AC “roof top units” used by small businesses and many schools - a reversing valve makes these units able to provide clean heat. Wisely, the CEC proposal covers these units as well. For both residential and commercial units, the proposed regs also include exceptions for atypical installations – such as where a panel upgrade would be required.

The draft regulations from the CEC are an important step forward. Millions of central air conditioning systems in California homes are approaching burnout, and as temperatures rise many families will also be seeking out AC for the first time. Without action, the vast majority of these systems will be replaced with outdated one-way AC units, and we’ll miss out on the climate and economic benefits that heat pumps deliver.

The first week of the new year is bringing new storms to California, with snow, rain, more big surf, gusty winds and possible thunderstorms.

Forecasts show a series of storms arriving in Southern California by Tuesday night, bringing widespread light rain around 10 p.m. and lingering through Wednesday morning.

Los Angeles County can expect one-fourth to three-fourths of an inch of rain as the first part of a cold front sweeps through the region. Temperatures will be hovering 6-12 degrees below average, according to the National Weather Service.

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Snow levels are expected to drop to 4,500 or 5,500 feet, according to the National Weather Service. Mountain communities above 5,000 feet can expect 3-6 inches of snow, with some areas seeing up to 8 inches, forecasts show.

“The first part of the storm will move through pretty quickly,” said meteorologist Ryan Kittle with the National Weather Service in Oxnard.

There is a 20% chance of thunderstorms for Los Angeles and Ventura counties on Wednesday morning.

The storm will conclude by Wednesday evening, with light scattered showers concentrated in higher elevations and colder than average temperatures. Snow levels will drop farther, to around 4,000 or 4,500 feet. The Grapevine section of Interstate 5 could see 1 to 2 inches of snow. Wind gusts of 20 to 40 mph are also expected.

A series of storm systems will bring mountain snow, rain, gusty winds, and possible thunderstorms this week. Mountain road delays or closures are possible, including #Interstate5 near the Tejon Pass / #Grapevine. #larain #cawx pic.twitter.com/FOz2dtuuks

— NWS Los Angeles (@NWSLosAngeles) January 1, 2024

A second storm system is expected late Saturday or early Sunday, with additional light rain and even lower snow levels. Snow is forecast in the 3,000-foot range, the lowest since the start of the winter season.

“The details surrounding the next storm are still evolving, but it doesn’t look like it will bring a lot of rain,” Kittle said. “But it will be a lot colder.”

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California will also see more heavy surf along the coast, though it won’t be anything like the onslaught of waves that crashed onto the shores last week from the Central Coast to Los Angeles County.

The surf will increase starting Tuesday evening and stay active through Thursday, with a stronger risk of dangerous rip currents across the southwest coastline, according to the weather service. High surf advisories will be in effect for the region, with 10- to 18-foot breaking waves along the Central Coast, 7- to 12-foot waves in Ventura County and 5- to 10-foot waves in Los Angeles County. The high surf will be concentrated along northwest-facing beaches, including Ventura Beach, Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach and the Palos Verdes Peninsula, according to forecasts.

A high surf and coastal flood advisory will be in effect for Los Angeles County starting 9 a.m. on Wednesday and will last through 9 p.m. Thursday.

The city of Malibu warned of “dangerous beach conditions” while the advisory is in effect.

“There is an increased risk for ocean drowning,” the city said in a news release on Tuesday. “Rip currents can pull swimmers and surfers out to sea. Large breaking waves can cause injury, wash people off beaches and rocks, and capsize small boats near shore.”

There will be a slight lull in surf activity on Friday before it picks back up over the weekend, the weather service said on X, formerly known as Twitter.

“People should really stay away from the water and the rock jetties,” Kittle said, noting that surf activity is expected to peak Sunday.

Southern California is experiencing its latest intense heat wave, and the climate-change-fueled cycle of record-breaking temperatures won’t stop anytime soon. Among the most heat-vulnerable Californians: children, who are more susceptible to heat stress and other heat-related illnesses compared to adults.

Though it’s easy to forget during the summer, children spend most of their daytime hours in school, which in many districts start in less than a month. So that’s a natural place to focus on protections against high temperatures, especially since in extreme heat, children miss out on sports and outdoor play and have difficulty learning.

Yet schools are some of the hottest places in our region. Single-story buildings surrounded by open, asphalt-dominated play yards with few trees provide little opportunity for cooling shade. Studying a school in the Pacoima neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley, my colleagues and I found that only 5% of the schoolyard was shaded at noon. A child standing on fully sun-exposed asphalt feels about 54 degrees hotter than a child standing in a shaded area during peak midday heat. And sun-exposed play equipment, asphalt and rubber mats can become hot enough to cause third-degree burns on a 90-degree day.

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As the climate changes, we can expect more days of extreme heat including during the school year. Researchers estimate that 60% of California’s elementary school districts will experience at least 100 days above 90 degrees annually by 2035 (and predict that some districts, such as Westmorland Union in Imperial County, will experience more than 200). But even in more temperate Northern California, the number of high heat days will increase in the future, extending well beyond summer break and creating dangerous conditions when classes are in session.

Right now, California is missing out on ample opportunities to keep kids cooler — particularly students with the fewest resources. As is the case for many efforts to fight the effects of climate change, failing to consider equity means leaving out the communities that most need support.

Funding for school facilities in California comes mostly from local sources and so varies depending on property wealth, limiting building maintenance and retrofits especially in lower wealth areas. Yet we do not know the full extent of the problem because California does not require all schools to have working air conditioners, track which schools have it or define maximum temperatures for indoor learning and outdoor play. When schools overheat in extreme weather, we can close them — but that doesn’t help children with families who lack cooling systems or can’t afford the energy bills to operate them.

Schools themselves need to be cooler. One promising state program makes available $98.6 million to turn public buildings into community resilience centers for dealing with extreme heat and other effects of climate change. Schools could become such centers by entering joint-use agreements with communities.

More broadly, equity should inform how resilience resources are distributed. Consider California’s Green Schoolyard Grants: At least 70% of the available $117 million is supposed to go to low-income or state-designated disadvantaged communities, which have high economic, health and environmental burdens. The program waives some project costs for these schools but comes with demanding reporting requirements, potentially serving as a barrier for the same low-resource schools that most need support from these grants.

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Outdated facility guidelines also need an equity-minded refresh. For instance, the California Department of Education sets requirements for hard-surface areas at schools based on school size, grade level and a definition of “play” that prioritizes asphalt-oriented activities such as basketball and handball. These guidelines were developed to ensure equitable access to play space. But they force school districts with large enrollments and not a lot of land — including many disadvantaged school districts — to pave virtually the entire school site, leaving no room for cooling trees and grass.

Similarly, bond measures that fund facility upgrades at schools do not factor in adaptations. The state could fix that by updating these measures to prioritize heat-preparedness projects in disadvantaged schools, such as new HVAC systems, removing asphalt and installing shade structures. But red tape can make even these common sense interventions far too difficult and expensive. For instance, installing a shade structure may require facility upgrades under California law that cost a lot of money but have questionable benefits for students, even concerning the state’s intended goal of accessibility. (A bill in the California Legislature, SB 515, would exempt certain projects from onerous upgrades.)

There is some promising news. A pilot by the Trust for Public Land’s Living Schoolyard Coalition is greening nearly 30 schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District. And when it repaves schools, LAUSD reduces the total asphalt footprint, which will help lower the temperatures on school grounds.

Several bills introduced in Sacramento also aim to help schools adapt to rising temperatures. One bill (AB 527) would expand and improve upon CalFire grants available for school greening projects; another (AB 384) would create the first audit of school indoor cooling systems and make recommendations for maximum temperature thresholds . A pair of bills (SB 394 and SB 499) would require master plans to make school grounds more climate- and heat-resilient. If these proposals move forward, they should focus on schools in highest-need districts first.

All of California’s nearly 6 million K-12 public school children deserve to learn and play in safe conditions. Even as the climate warms, that’s a goal we can and should achieve.

V. Kelly Turner is an associate professor of Urban Planning and Geography and associate director of the Luskin Center for Innovation in the Luskin School of Public Affairs at UCLA.

Each year, the BC SPCA receives nearly 1,000 calls to rescue animals who have been left inside vehicles on hot days. We know that people love their pets and would never knowingly put them in danger, but pets can quickly suffer when left in a vehicle in warm weather, putting them at risk for heatstroke and even death.

The good news is the death of a pet left in a hot car is a completely preventable. When the heat of summer strikes, the answer is simple: leave your pets at home. Follow these tips and your pets will feel comfortable, cool, and safe this summer.

Provide lots of water

First and foremost, keeping your pet hydrated is important to keep them cool and safe. Keep fresh bowls of cold water that are easily accessible to your furry friends. Have a finicky cat? They might be more enticed with a fun fountain water bowl. You can also keep the bowl cool by adding a few ice cubes to it.

Make a frozen treat bowl

A frozen treat bowl is a cool way to keep your pets both entertained and refreshed. Freeze kibble or their favourite treats in a bowl of frozen water, and your pets won’t be able to control their tongues. For added flavour, combine water with chicken or beef stock mixture and they’ll really be excited about this tasty treat.

Give them a cooling place to sleep

Before leaving the house ensure your pet has a cooling place to sleep and relax. This might mean ensuring they remain on the lower level of the home where it’s cooler as well as providing a cozy area for them that’s out of direct sunlight. You might also want to close blinds and curtains to keep your space as cool as possible.

Depending on your dog’s personality, you might also want to consider purchasing a doggie cooling mat that will help prevent them from becoming overheated if they like to stretch out in the warm sun (cats can use them too!).

Keep a fan going

If you don’t have AC, consider keeping a fan going while you’re away from the house to keep fresh air circulating inside for your pet. They’re a great way for your pet to keep cool and you might even consider attaching a pet-friendly misting system to provide even more relief.

Treat them with a frozen Kong

Your dog loves their Kong, especially if it’s filled with their favourite goodies. Try lining the Kong with some peanut butter or their preferred treat, and freezing the kong, for a refreshing cooling twist on the treat.

KONG Classic

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Keep your dog at a healthy weight

Overweight dogs have a harder time keeping cool in warm weather and are at greater risk of overheating. Consult with your veterinarian to help maintain their ideal body condition, which varies depending on the breed of your dog.

Take care of your dog’s coat

Ensuring your dog is regularly groomed in the summer is important to keep them cool. Your dog’s coat doesn’t just keep them warm in the winter but can also keep them cooler in the summer. It can also protect their skin from sunburn. Regular and thorough brushing helps allow proper airflow for their skin as well as prevents mats, which are not only painful but also trap heat and moisture and can result in skin infections. If you have questions regarding your dog’s grooming, consult with your veterinarian first.

Remember people in the heat, too!

Just as we need to pay close attention to our pets, it’s important to check on our neighbours and loved ones, especially during extreme heat events. Certain people, including seniors, have less ability to regulate their body temperature and are therefore more at risk of heat-related illness.

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