2014 on track to be hottest year on record in California

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A surfer jumps into the water in Venice next to the pier. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

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Puffy clouds drift over downtown Los Angeles. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

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Teri Griffith of Garden Grove wipes her brow and fans herself in the stands before a Los Angeles Angels game in Anaheim. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

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A woman carries her shade with her near Nicole Maloney Oomo’s art installation in Little Tokyo. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

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Necmettin Tekin plays in a fountain at Hollywood and Highland complex on the sixth day of a heat wave. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

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West Los Angeles College cross-country runner Tawuan Cargill dumps water over his head after running amid high temperatures at the Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

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Students walk in the shade at Cal State Fullerton during the sixth day of a heat wave. (Christina House / For the Times)

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Visitors take pictures of one another against clouds at Hollywood and Highland. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

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Max Badder soars high in the heat at the Van Nuys Pedlow Skate Park. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

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A huge thunderhead dwarfs a sailboat near the Angels Gate entrance to Los Angeles Harbor. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

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The Rose Bowl Aquatic swim teams practice in the heat at the Pasadena facility. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

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Oswaldo Escobar, of Los Angeles, finds shade while taking in the view of downtown from Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

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The setting suns sets clouds aglow as they pass over the Los Angeles skyline. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

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A youngster walks to school across the railroad tracks at Broadway and Slauson as the early morning sun drenches the roadway at the beginning of another scorcher. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

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The sun sets off the Palos Verdes Peninsula after a day of record-setting hot temperatures throughout Southern California. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

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Brannigan Cheney picks up his son Atlas, 2, after cooling off in the shade on the grounds of the George C. Page Museum in Los Angeles. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

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A construction worker takes a long drink from a insulated jug while taking a break at The Village, under construction at Westfield Topanga in Woodland Hills. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

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A man pumps gasoline at a Canoga Park station where a temperature gauge reads 114 degrees. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

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Paddle boaters enjoy the spray from the water fountain on Echo Park Lake. (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)

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Sign spinner Orlando Reyes points cars to a Thousand Oaks Blvd. massage business under the hot sun. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

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Rosalind Goings, 2, joins others playing in the fountain at Grand Park in downtown Los Angeles on Monday. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

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Yoshawn Smith pauses for a minute to take a selfie with his son, Dario Smith, 2, as they play in the Grand Park fountain on Monday. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

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Children in Boyle Heights cool down in a 30-foot blow-up swimming pool at a birthday party on Sunday. (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)

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Daisy Dukes, a 3-year-old standard poodle, spends the morning cooling down during a surfing lesson at Huntington Dog Beach on Sunday. (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)

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Sandra Figueroa, left, and her sister Elizabeth try to beat the heat at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena while shopping at the monthly flea market on Sunday. (Christina House / For The Times)

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A man has a large section of the left field bleachers to himself as the heat kept many away from Angels Stadium for the game against the Houston Astros on Sunday. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

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Stacia Watniarski of Riverside cools off while the Angels play the Houston Astros in Anaheim on Sunday. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

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People get in an early Friday morning workout outside the Pasadena Rose Bowl. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

By Veronica Rocha

Sept. 17, 2014 2:51 PM PT

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This year is on track to be the hottest year in California since record-keeping began roughly 119 years ago, scientists announced Wednesday.

Prolonged drought and increasing temperatures over the last four decades have resulted in the warmer conditions currently plaguing California, said Paul Iniguez, science and operation officer for the National Weather Service in Hanford.

“Everything is kind of working together,” he said.

There is an 88% chance that 2014 will beat the warmest year currently on record -- an average 59.7 degrees set in 1934.

Although the most recent heat wave that smothered Southern California certainly looms large in the minds of the public, it’s the cumulative effect of consistently warm temperatures statewide that has driven the projection.

“We have baked in the fact that we are going to be above average,” Iniguez said.

Scientists also used past and present average temperature data to run 1 million statistical simulations, he said.

Last week, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported that the first eight months of 2014 were the warmest on the record in California. The average temperature was 62.6 degrees.

For breaking news in Los Angeles and throughout California, follow @VeronicaRochaLA. She can be reached at [email protected].