106-Degree Heat Sets Another L.A. Record
Soaring temperatures shattered one record and threatened another today as Los Angeles sweltered under an intensifying heat wave that is expected to last through the July 4th holiday.
It was 106 degrees at the Civic Center at 12:45 p.m.--seven degrees above the previous record high for July 1, recorded back in 1884.
The thermometer dipped only as far as 77 this morning, 9 degrees above the present record minimum for the date, registered in 1959. Since it isn’t expected to cool off much tonight, that 77-degree reading could also stand as a new record, the National Weather Service said.
The records began toppling Sunday, when a top reading of 100 at the Civic Center broke the 101-year-old mark for the date by two degrees. A Sunday afternoon high of 96 at San Diego’s Lindbergh Field was a full 12 degrees above the old record there for June 30, which was set in 1960.
Other parts of Southern California were even hotter at noon today--112 in Palm Springs and 109 in Imperial.
Forecasters blamed the continuing heat wave on a strong, upper-level high pressure system that is heating air flowing into Southern California by compression, blocking the onshore flow of cool, moist air from the Pacific.
Tuesday’s highs are expected to be about the same as today’s, with more of the same on Wednesday and Thursday.
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