The National Weather Service has issued extreme heat warnings for parts of southern California, including Los Angeles, running through Thursday. Temperatures are forecast to reach the high 30s Celsius, with Burbank already logging 39C on Saturday — a few degrees short of the October record set back in 1987.
The warnings come as Indonesia works through one of its worst wildfire seasons in recent memory. Western Kalimantan on Borneo and southern Sumatra have taken the brunt, and the smoke hasn't stayed local. Cities in Malaysia and Singapore have been dealing with reduced air quality for weeks.
High pressure parked over California
Forecasters blame a persistent area of high pressure sitting over the region, and it isn't moving anytime soon. That means more hazardous heat through the week and a rising fire risk across the Southland. The setup is straightforward: the ridge traps hot air, dries out vegetation, and leaves little chance of relief until it breaks down.
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Southern California has seen this pattern before, but the timing matters. October heat can be just as dangerous as midsummer heat because the public has mentally moved on from summer precautions. Emergency planners typically watch for heat illness in vulnerable populations and for any spark that could turn into a brush fire.
Why Indonesia's fires burn differently
Indonesia's fire season is a different beast entirely. The country's soils are unusually rich in peat — thick layers of partially decayed plant matter that burn underground as well as above it. Once peat catches, it doesn't stop easily. Rain is the only reliable extinguisher, and there hasn't been much of it.
That lack of rainfall has dried out soils that are normally waterlogged, letting fires spread fast both above and below the surface. And because peat is carbon-dense, the smoke carries more than the usual particulate matter. It includes elevated levels of toxic gases such as sulphur dioxide and carbon monoxide, which is why the haze drifting into Malaysia and Singapore has been more than a nuisance.
The El Niño backdrop
None of this is random. Drought and wildfires are more common in this part of the world during El Niño events, when thunderstorm activity gets suppressed and rainfall patterns shift. The current conditions fit that pattern, and forecasters have been expecting a difficult fire season for months.
For California, the story is a stalled high-pressure system. For Indonesia, it's a dry spell colliding with a landscape that stores carbon in vast quantities. Both are weather, but both have consequences that extend past the immediate forecast.
What happens Thursday
The heat warnings for Los Angeles and surrounding areas are set to run until Thursday. Whether they're extended depends on how quickly that high-pressure ridge weakens — and on whether the region gets any meaningful cooling overnight, which is often the difference between a manageable heat wave and a dangerous one.
In Indonesia, the fire season has already peaked over the past month, but peak doesn't mean finished. Until the rains arrive in force, the peat will keep smoldering, and the haze will keep drifting. The next thing to watch is whether regional air quality deteriorates further, or whether shifting winds give Malaysia and Singapore a break.
