LOS ANGELES (AP) — California is in the grip of a heat wave.

Temperatures approached triple digits in much of the state this afternoon and surpassed 100 degrees in inland areas.

Heat in the 90s is being felt in the normally temperate San Francisco Bay Area, where temperature records are expected to fall before the day is over.

Thousands who crammed Golden Gate Park for the annual Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival were chugging water and dumping it on their heads as they danced to banjos and fiddles in the midday swelter, with many wearing shorts and little else.

Heat in the Sacramento area also pushed well into the 90s.

The mercury was at 95 degrees in downtown Los Angeles by midday and 101 in the suburbs of San Bernardino County.

A high-pressure system extending over the western part of the country, along with Santa Ana winds that blow across deserts and down mountain canyons before arriving in Southern California are generating the sweltering conditions.

There’s a red-flag warning of critical wildfire conditions through tonight.

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