Warmer Days Bear Promise of Spring

It wasn’t quite spring, but Sunday showed a hint of things to come as dark clouds disappeared, temperatures reached into the mid-60s and throughout Orange County people began to stir out-of-doors.

Officially winter will linger for 37 more days, but Sunday provided sun lovers with one of the few chances so far in 1985 to frolic outside unimpeded by the elements. It reached 64 degrees in El Toro and 61 in Newport Beach under clear skies.

Today should bring even warmer, balmier weather, with highs in the mid-70s and overnight lows of 35 to 48 as high pressure builds inland over the Western states and dominates the weather pattern through mid-week, according to the National Weather Service forecast. A weak offshore flow is expected to keep coastal areas free of low clouds, while 25 m.p.h. Santa Ana winds are forecast for canyon areas.

“The last two weeks have been rather lousy weather,” said Jeff Ochsner, assistant manager at Meadowlark Golf Course in Huntington Beach. But Sunday the course was buzzing at about 90% capacity with golfing foursomes teeing off at the first hole every seven minutes, he said.

Sunday’s clearing skies and warmer temperature brought crowds to parks, beaches, car washes and other places, where only one day earlier the sun didn’t shine.

At Huntington Beach, about 1,500 people turned out to walk and bicycle along the sand, though only die-hard, wet-suited surfers dared to enter the 57-degree water, lifeguard Sgt. John Barth said.

The Balboa Island pier looked like a freeway at rush hour. Tandem tricycles, roller skaters, baby buggies, bikes and pedestrians convened for what amounted to a festival of sunshine.

‘Out of the Woodwork’

“The weather was so crummy and people have been so cooped up that they’re just crawling out of the woodwork today,” said Vance Severance of the Fun Zone Boat Co., which conducts harbor cruises.

Inland, the Mission Car Wash in Santa Ana was “having booming business now that the clouds are gone,” said cashier Leslie Moon, who added that nearly a car every 90 seconds passed through the hand-wash assembly line.

About 60 contemporarily attired patrons dined outdoors at a Costa Mesa restaurant’s sidewalk cafe, while about 100 men and women chivalrously donned the garb of knights and maidens for a day of jousting, juggling and jesting at a gathering of the Creative Anachronism Society at Santa Ana’s Centennial Regional Park.

Sunday’s crowds at Disneyland easily topped that of cooler Saturday, and park visitors were treated to the sight of three “mountain climbers” scaling the wintry Matterhorn.