Moderate Beach Crowds Enjoy Warm Air and Ocean

Morning clouds may have discouraged Orange County residents from visiting local beaches Sunday, but the moderate crowds that turned out enjoyed warm temperatures in and out of the water as the cloud cover burned off by midday.

Lifeguard Supervisor Ron Gamble at Huntington Beach State Park said, “Crowds were kind of scattered . . . (and) not really crowded at all.” Memorial Day weather is expected to be much like Sunday’s, though somewhat cooler with morning clouds along the coast, clearing somewhat by afternoon. Highs of 65 to 70 degrees are expected throughout Southern California with lows of 54 to 62.

Light Winds Forecast

Off the coast, the forecast calls for light winds of 10 to 16 knots through Monday night with southwest to westerly swells of one to three feet, according to the National Weather Service.

Moderate size holiday crowds spent Sunday at Orange County beaches, where clouds burned off around noon. But inland, skies took a little longer to clear, perhaps discouraging many people from traveling to the beach, lifeguards said.

Nevertheless, many of those who came were lured into warm water, where lifeguards made numerous rescues.

“I expect about the same (Monday) especially if the weather holds up,” said Brian Covert, city lifeguard at San Clemente, where about 8,000 lined the beach and 20 swimmers were rescued.

“That’s typical for (Memorial Day) weekend with summer coming up,” Covert said.

The freeways in Orange County were unusually accident free two-thirds of the way through the Memorial Day weekend.

The California Highway Patrol reported no fatal accidents in the county. But CHP dispatcher Janelle Clem said holiday vacationers should begin flooding back into the county sometime today, clogging freeways as they did Friday.

At Garden Grove’s Strawberry Festival, a well-behaved shoulder-to-shoulder crowd of several thousand gathered for the third consecutive day, a police spokesman said. The festival concludes today.

But it was not nearly as congested at Irvine Park in Orange where less than capacity crowds showed up Saturday and Sunday.

“I expected yesterday and today for there to be a lot of people,” said Irvine Park Ranger Cornell Stinson on Sunday. The crowd of about 9,000 didn’t fill the park and was smaller than the Easter weekend crowd.

“I don’t know what to expect for Memorial Day,” Stinson said.

At Huntington City Beach, Lifeguard Supervisor Kai Weisser said 150 campers in motor homes and trailers took advantage of the last weekend in which reservations were accepted for overnight camping on the beach’s parking lots.

Beginning next weekend and throughout the summer, he said, no reservations will be accepted, but campers will be permitted on a first-come, first-served basis. However, campers will be required to leave by 8 a.m. to make way for beachgoers, he said.