The remnants of Hurricane Marie walloped San Diego County on Tuesday afternoon, sparking majestic thunderstorms in the mountains, wild winds from Oceanside to Alpine, and another day of sizzling temperatures that made people wilt.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s lots of moisture in the air, and it is making the wind blow all over the place,\u201d said Paul Steward, a forecaster at the National Weather Service.<\/p>\n
The wind gusted to 59 mph along Interstate 8, east of Alpine, and 29 mph in Oceanside, near Interstate 5. Lightning lit up the sky in many places, notably near Ramona.<\/p>\n
Steward said daytime high temperatures reached 106 in the San Pasqual Valley near Julian, 105 in eastern Camp Pendleton, 102 in Ramona and El Cajon, 98 at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, 97 in Vista, 95 in Oceanside, and 93 at San Diego International Airport.<\/p>\n
Marie, which has been downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone, has mostly faded away far out to sea. But its bits and pieces have the county under an extreme heat warning<\/a> that won\u2019t expire until Wednesday night. A lower-level heat advisory will remain in effect for an additional day, the weather service says.<\/p>\n With the start of autumn less than three weeks away, the region is in need of relief.<\/p>\n Since June 1, San Diego has experienced only 14 days in which the daytime high temperature was below average. The heat was especially bad on Sunday and Monday, when the temperature hit 95 degrees at San Diego International Airport \u2014 17 degrees above normal.<\/p>\n The prolonged heat and humidity have elevated the risk of wildfires countywide. The public will learn on Thursday whether these conditions are broadly causing the region to slip into drought. That\u2019s when the federal government and the University of Nebraska update the U.S. Drought Monitor website<\/a>.<\/p>\n Thursday is also the day that NOAA will announce whether the powerful El Ni\u00f1o that\u2019s been emerging in the equatorial Pacific will become stronger than originally expected<\/a>. Scientists say the El Ni\u00f1o has made hurricane season stronger than normal in the eastern Pacific. The storms have included Hurricane Marie, which produced oppressive heat in San Diego County over Labor Day weekend.<\/p>\n