Triple-digit heat is coming to parts of California

A high-pressure system is forecast to expand across the West next week and push temperatures to near record territory Sunday through Tuesday. Highs may be more than 20 degrees above May normals in Northern California.

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A hot spell of weather will engulf much of California this weekend into early next week, marking this year’s first true bout of heat in many places. Some cities may hit 100 or even 105 degrees earlier in the year than ever before.

A slow-building high-pressure system over the northeast Pacific will nudge into California on Thursday, but it’ll ramp up considerably Sunday once it settles over the Desert Southwest.

The hot column of air beneath the high-pressure system is expected to be among the most extreme on record in mid-May, “indicating a very rare event,” according to the National Weather Service Los Angeles.

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Daily high temperature records could be challenged anywhere from Sacramento to Las Vegas to Oklahoma City between Sunday and Tuesday.

Heat is forecast to be most extreme in the Central Valley, Antelope Valley and the Mojave and Sonoran deserts. Mid-90s to low 100s are forecast in the Sacramento Valley from Sunday through Tuesday, with temperatures as high as 105 in the San Joaquin Valley. A 105-degree reading in Fresno would be nearly a week earlier than the previous record, and more than a month before such temperatures are measured in a typical year.

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Temperatures in the 70s to mid-80s in Tahoe will melt away much of what little snowpack remains in the Sierra Nevada, and nighttime temperatures will remain well above freezing.

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Unlike the record-shattering March temperatures, this won’t be a coastal heat wave.

San Francisco is unlikely to warm beyond 80 degrees. Santa Barbara, Long Beach and San Diego will be in the 70s to low 80s, with downtown Los Angeles possibly flirting with 90 degrees on Mother’s Day and Monday. Temperature gradients between the coast and valleys tend to be most pronounced from May through August as the marine layer, often filled with clouds, keeps San Francisco and Los Angeles mild.

A 30-minute drive from the beach will yield vastly different weather.

While fog lingers at the coast, Wine Country, Silicon Valley and the interior East Bay are expected to push into the 90s as early as Sunday. By Monday and Tuesday, high temperatures could be as much as 20 degrees above normal in Santa Rosa, Napa, Walnut Creek, Dublin, San Jose and Redwood City.

While these temperatures are frequent in midsummer, the early arrival could pose danger to people, as human bodies aren’t yet acclimated to summerlike heat. There’s a moderate risk of heat-related illnesses in much of the Bay Area on Monday and Tuesday. Overnight temperatures should yield more relief than a July-like heat wave. Lows are forecast to be in the upper 50s to mid-60s in the Central Valley and the 50s in the Bay Area, except in the hills above 1,500 feet, where the mercury will remain in the 60s to low 70s at night.

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Heat waves are becoming bigger, more severe and lasting longer as a result of human-caused climate change, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Next week’s spell of heat doesn’t appear to have the longevity of the record-shattering March event that lasted for weeks. An active jet stream — with two branches, one directed toward the Pacific Northwest and another over Baja California — should help shove this high-pressure system east. That’ll open the door for milder marine air to flood the Golden State and take an edge off the early-season heat.

Thursday breakdown

San Francisco: It’s May in San Francisco: Morning clouds, afternoon sunshine and a pronounced temperature gradient across the city. Highs will get stuck around 60 degrees at Ocean Beach, with low to mid-60s in the vicinity of Twin Peaks and near the Golden Gate, with mid- to upper 60s in the Mission and downtown. Afternoon gusts of 15 to 25 mph are expected, strongest along Ocean Avenue and near the water. Overnight lows will be in the low to mid-50s with increasing clouds and fog.

North Bay: Low clouds are expected to cover all of Wine Country and extend into Solano County in the morning. These clouds could manifest themselves as fog along the Highway 101 corridor with low visibility. Mostly sunny skies will emerge by late morning, except along the coast. Highs will be in the mid- to upper 70s in San Rafael, Santa Rosa, Napa, Vallejo and Fairfield and around 80 degrees in Vacaville, Calistoga and Healdsburg. Gusts up to 20 mph are expected in the afternoon. Lows will be in the low to mid-50s with increasing clouds.

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East Bay: Clouds are expected to push toward Alameda County and spill into parts of Contra Costa County in the morning. Blue sky should emerge between 9 and 11 a.m. Highs will reach the upper 60s in Richmond, Oakland, Berkeley and Hayward, then low 70s in Fremont and Lamorinda and the mid-70s in Concord, Walnut Creek, Antioch and the Tri-Valley. Afternoon gusts up to 25 mph are possible over Altamont Pass, with slightly lower speeds elsewhere. Overnight lows will be in the low to mid-50s with increasing clouds.

Pacific Coast and Peninsula: Marine layer stratus clouds should be fully developed in the morning, with overcast skies extending across San Mateo County. Clouds should retreat to the coast midday, leaving the Highway 101 corridor beneath sunny skies. High temperatures will be in the upper 50s to low 60s in Daly City, Pacifica and Half Moon Bay, the mid-60s in South San Francisco and Daly City and upper 60s to low 70s in San Carlos, San Mateo and Redwood City. Gusts up to 25 mph are likely in the afternoon. Overnight lows will be in the low to mid-50s with increasing clouds.

South Bay and Santa Cruz: A cloudy morning will yield to a sunny afternoon. Highs will be about 5 degrees above seasonal norms, in the low to mid-70s in Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Milpitas and Santa Cruz. Upper 70s are expected in San Jose, Scotts Valley and Boulder Creek. Highs should reach low 80s in Morgan Hill and Gilroy. Gusts up to 15 mph off the bay are anticipated in the afternoon. Overnight lows will be in the mid-50s in Santa Clara Valley and the upper 40s to low 50s in Santa Cruz County.

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‘The Odyssey’s’ Trojan horse sequence is revolutionary

When the New York premiere of Christopher Nolan’s take on “The Odyssey” was held on July 14, looming over the red carpet in Manhattan was an almost-40-foot statue of a horse. A few other giant equines have been touring the country (and the UK) to promote the film, which is also using an image of the iconic wooden Trojan horse in some of its posters. And while the original ancient Greek poem doesn’t actually cover the events of the famous mythological bait-and-switch in real detail, it’s still clearly a potent symbol for Nolan’s new movie — and fans who’ve already seen it understand why.

In a visceral and thrilling sequence, Nolan takes audiences inside the Trojan horse for an extended, gritty scene that lays out the cramped, horrifying conditions for those hiding inside, underscoring their maniacal, animalistic hunger to prevail in battle.

The minutes-long scene is without parallel in the many previous pop culture depictions of the mythological moment. Max Nelson, an associate professor of Greek and Roman studies who has taught courses about the ancient world’s on-screen depictions at Canada’s University of Windsor, said he couldn’t recall another work entrapping audiences with the Greeks inside the horse in such a dark manner. “The harsh conditions for the Greeks waiting for days inside the Trojan horse have not been shown on screen before,” Nelson said.

What feels particularly fresh in Nolan’s film is that he flips the perspective with which audiences have mostly become familiar. “Usually, the episode is presented from the point of view of the Trojans, who must decide what to do with it,” Nelson said.

The scene has evidently been in Nolan’s head for some time. The British director was briefly attached to direct 2004’s “Troy,” starring Brad Pitt, before that film was given to Wolfgang Petersen. “It’s been at the back of my mind for a very long time,” he told Empire magazine last year. “Certain images, particularly: How I wanted to handle the Trojan horse, things like that.” Nolan also told the Independent this month that he had spent a lot of time thinking about how to portray the Trojan horse and make it feel “credible” to audiences. “I’ve had an image of that horse sinking into the sand in my head for 20 years,” he said.

Christopher Nolan was briefly attached to direct

Indeed, this new Matt Damon-led film opens with a short scene involving the Trojans discovering the horse statue, ostensibly abandoned in the waves on the seashore, just as Nolan imagined it. (The director told Jon Stewart of “The Daily Show” that he believed the horse needed to appear dumped next to the sea to seem “credible” to audiences that the Trojans wouldn’t see it as a ruse.) The one Greek who remains, Sinon (Elliot Page), explains to the Trojan soldiers that the horse is a parting gift to the gods from his army, who seem to have given up on their years-long siege of the city.

Then, just as we think we might follow the booby-trapped present through the gates of Troy, Nolan cuts away. We don’t return to the horse until roughly 45 minutes later when Menelaus (Jon Bernthal) recounts to Telemachus (Tom Holland) what it was like to hide within the statue with the latter’s father, Odysseus (Damon), and other soldiers.

The telling we then see on screen is horrifying, to say the least. Men are shown drowning within the horse during the first two tides that come and go, as others struggle to breathe through straws amid the rising waters. Menelaus describes how the men, stacked on top of each other amid stiflingly hot conditions, also had to urinate and defecate on one another.

When they’re finally discovered by the Trojans, the Greeks must take care not to make a sound as they hear Sinon being slain, then also hold their tongues while a soldier tests the horse by stabbing it repeatedly with a sword, striking one of them. The statue is dragged via ropes by grunting Trojans before being lurched upright against a sacred temple, once again jostling those inside.

Set to a score of drumbeats that gradually grow faster and louder, we finally watch as the Greeks sneak out via a rope in the middle of the night, slay the few Trojan soldiers on duty and struggle to finally open the city’s massive gates amid a growing contingent of enemies.

In a movie full of many quiet moments, it’s one of the most chaotic, exhilarating and unforgettable sequences.

In text, the events involving the Trojan horse are covered most extensively in Virgil’s “Aeneid.” In previous on-screen iterations, including 1956’s “Helen of Troy” and 1961’s “La guerra di Troia” (“The Trojan Horse”), the horse is often shown being brought in on wheels, already in an upright position. These old films contain no shots from within the horse, and the ensuing combat they depict can feel somewhat G-rated to modern audiences. “As was common at the time, the combat is portrayed rather theatrically, with no blood and gore,” said Nelson.

Two television miniseries that portray the ancient Greek myth, 1997’s “The Odyssey” and 2003’s “Helen of Troy,” both feature flashes of the soldiers hiding within the horse, which is once again positioned on wheels, but neither shows any real suffering occurring inside. If anything, the horse appears to be a rather roomy, comfortable place within which to wait to lay siege.

According to Kim Shelton, a professor of Ancient Greek and Roman studies at the University of California, Berkeley, there have been many depictions of the Trojan horse myth, dating back to early Roman wall paintings from the 7th century BCE to medieval manuscripts. “Since it is an object of myth and imagination there has never been a definitive version,” Shelton said. (However, she noted it has often been depicted on wheels since ancient times.)

Still, Shelton prefers the version shown in 2004’s “Troy” because its ramshackle design of blistered wood and ropes resembles something that might have been assembled from abandoned ships — the only material that would have been on hand. (The 2004 movie also shows the horse being transported into Troy on a series of rolling logs, rather than wheels attached to it.) And while “Troy” didn’t show any scenes from within the statue — and while Pitt’s character, Achilles, is among those hiding inside, despite dying before the siege in the original poem — Shelton feels the shots we do get of soldiers’ eyes lurking within conveyed “the perilous feel of being piled inside and trying not to be discovered.”

Compared to the 2004 version, Nolan’s horse appears much sleeker and more refined in its design and construction. But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t hellish or claustrophobic for those inside — including the cast and crew.

Damon told GamesRadar+ that when he asked Nolan the day before they filmed the scene how he intended to do so, the director said they would effectively have to improvise. “It was a real lesson,” said Damon. “He goes, ‘We’re just going to cram in there and figure it out.’”

The star recalled climbing inside the structure with the other actors, Nolan and cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema, before doing just that. “That feeling of claustrophobia, that was all just developing organically,” Damon told the outlet. “If we had planned it out, I don’t think it would have had that same energy.”

John Leguizamo, who plays the loyal and blind Eumaeus, told the Hollywood Reporter how astonished he was to learn that Nolan and van Hoytema had climbed inside the horse with the 20 or so actors and an IMAX camera. “I couldn’t believe that. I was like, Wow, this man is a leader,” he said of Nolan. “This man is not going to ask anything of you that he doesn’t attempt himself.”

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Trevoh Chalobah to reunite with Cesc Fabregas as Como beat Crystal Palace & Inter to signing of Chelsea defender

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Como’s aggressive recruitment drive shows no signs of slowing down as they close in on a deal for Chelsea academy graduate Chalobah. The Italian side, led by Fabregas, have turned their attention to the versatile defender to anchor their backline following their historic achievement last season, finishing fourth in Serie A to secure their place in the Champions League.

The move represents a significant coup for the Lariani, who have managed to convince the 27-year-old that his future lies at the Stadio Giuseppe Sinigaglia. According to Sky Sport Italia, after weeks of speculation regarding his departure from Stamford Bridge, an agreement on the base of €35 million including bonuses is now within reach.

Chalobah broke into the Chelsea senior team in 2018, which gave him the opportunity to work with Fabregas for a year (albeit without ever playing together in a competitive game), and they are now set to reunite in Italy.

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5 Western New York Restaurants Featured On Food Network

The Food Network is a big fan of Western New York and over the years there have been plenty of restaurants that have been featured on the network.

From the home of the “Buffalo Wing” to a very famous butcher that everyone knows in Buffalo, here are five spots that have been featured on the Food Network.

EXTRA: WESTERN NEW YORKERS’ FAVORITE SPOTS FOR FISH FRIES

1. Anchor Bar – The home of the “Original Buffalo Wing”, the Anchor Bar has been featured on several different shows on the Food Network. Some of the shows include Food Wars, Food Paradise, and Throw Down with Bobby Flay.

2. Las Puertas Buffalo – Located at 385 Rhode Island Street in Downtown Buffalo, Las Puertas was featured on the show “Best Thing I Ever Ate” during the episode “In the Last Place You’d Expect”

3. Schwabl’s – Known for their Beef on Weck, Schwabl’s, located on Center Road in West Seneca, was featured on the show “No Reservations”

4. Charlie the Butcher’s Kitchen – Another Buffalo spot known for its Beef on Weck, Charlie the Butcher’s Kitchen on Wehrle Drive was featured on the show “Best Thing I Ever Ate”

5. Duff’s Wings – Another wing spot was highlighted on the Food Network. Duff’s was featured on the show “Food Wars”

And since Buffalo is known for its wings, here is a bonus wing spot that was featured on Food Network.

BONUS: Wing Kings – It’s Buffalo, so you know people from all over the world come for the wings. Wing Kings, located on Elmwood Ave, was featured on the show “Food Paradise”.

Many more restaurants like Grover’s, The Blackthorn Restaurant & Pub, and Mulberry Italian Ristorante have also been featured on Triple D “Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives”