Southern California residents had made it through the worst of this week's heat wave with slightly lower temperatures on tap for Thursday and Friday.

A map shows areas in California where temperatures are expected to surpass 100 this week. There has been an early-season heat wave in Southern and Central California. On Monday, people in four states including California were warned of dangerous fire weather conditions.

The heat pushed well into the 90s in many areas Wednesdays, which forecasters said would be the peak of the small heat wave.