(TNS) - A late-summer heat wave in Southern California typically sends people fleeing to movie theaters, shopping malls and crowded beaches in search of a cool respite.

But the coronavirus pandemic has forced the closure of places where people once gathered, upending those routines.

So as temperatures soared Friday, many people instead stayed at home with their air conditioners blasting. Even though many offices and businesses were closed due to the pandemic, that intense demand — along with other factors including a dearth of power coming in from other states — was enough to create the most serious statewide energy shortage in nearly 20 years, officials said. On Saturday night, another round of temporary blackouts was ordered in parts of the state.

The current heatwave broiling Californians like no event in decades is also elevating the risk for another potential disaster in the weeks ahead: wildfires.

While heat and dry conditions have contributed to the Lake and Ranch fires burning now in Los Angeles County, fear of larger blazes looms in the weeks ahead. As a result of climate change, California sees more than twice as many fall days with “fire weather” as it did a generation ago. The current heatwave raises the odds of “wildfires later in 2020, that’s for sure,” says Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA and the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

California’s earthquake early warnings will be a standard feature on all Android phones, bypassing the need for users to download the state’s MyShake app in order to receive alerts, the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services said.

The state worked with the U.S. Geological Survey and Google, the maker of Android, to build the quake alerts into all phones that run the commonplace operating system. The deal was expected to be announced Tuesday.

The number of COVID-19 cases in California stood at 554,160 cases Sunday, according to state health department officials.

The California Department of Public Health said in a release that there have been 8,826,119 tests conducted in California, an increase of 118,592 over the prior 24-hour reporting period.

There have been 10,293 COVID-19 deaths in California since the start of the pandemic, the department reported.

Hermosa Beach officials said the city plans is using a private consulting firm to help police enforce an ordinance requiring face coverings in public areas, The Los Angeles Times reported Saturday.

Figures showing California has slowed the rate of coronavirus infections may be in doubt because a technical problem has delayed reporting of test results, the state’s top health official said.

For days, California hasn’t received full counts on the number of tests conducted nor the number that come back positive for COVID-19, Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly said Tuesday.

A wildfire in mountains east of Los Angeles that has forced thousands of people from their homes was sparked by a malfunctioning diesel vehicle, fire officials said Monday.

The vehicle spewed burning carbon from its exhaust system, igniting several fires Friday on Oak Glen Road in Cherry Valley, and authorities were asking anyone who may have seen such a vehicle at the time to contact investigators, according to a statement from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

The blaze in Riverside County, among several wildfires across California, had consumed nearly 42 square miles of dry brush and chaparral since it broke out Friday evening, fire officials said.

California’s attorney general and state and local agencies are investigating whether Amazon.com Inc. has taken adequate steps to protect its workers from the coronavirus pandemic, according to a court filing on Monday.

Attorney General Xavier Becerra’s office, California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health and the San Francisco Department of Public Health “have all opened investigations into Amazon’s practices” around the pandemic, San Francisco Superior Court Judge Ethan Schulman wrote in the filing.

A wildfire in rural central California grew larger but firefighters also increased containment, authorities said.

Low humidity and hot temperatures have raised fire danger in large portions of the state.

The Mineral Fire in western Fresno County expanded to more than 28,500 acres and was 62% contained.

Get ready for the big one.

That’s a refrain Californians have heard for years, but this time one scientist is putting a number on it.

There’s a 1% chance a big quake will strike next year on the Southern section of the San Andreas Fault, according to Ross S. Stein, Ph.D., CEO of Temblor Inc., a catastrophe risk modeling company based in Redwood City, Calif.

That may not sound that high, but it’s a lot higher than previously believed.

New findings point to need for home improvements that resist embers, the cause of up to 90 percent of wildfire ignitions

Researchers identified key factors influencing the survivability of structures during a wildfire after surveying the devastation in Paradise, Calif. following the 2018 Camp Fire, the deadliest and most costly on record in the state, and data from six other California wildfire events in 2017-2018,