L.A.’s Mercury Reaches 102 : Smog Chokes Inland Areas; Beaches Full

Beaches filled up early and boiling radiators slowed freeway traffic in Southern California Sunday as temperatures soared past the century mark and smog became a problem from the mountains to the sea.

More than 1.7 million refugees from the heat--just about everyone who could find a place to park--spent at least part of the day on beaches from Zuma to Newport, where the mercury stayed in the mid to upper 80s and lifeguards said they rescued more people from sunburn than from the surf.

“The water was so quiet that you could almost hear the skin frying,” said Los Angeles County Lifeguard Bob Jerrold.

“On Sunday morning, most people sleep in. But this time the parking lots were filled by the middle of the morning and people were walking a mile or more to find a patch of sand by noon.”

High temperature at Los Angeles Civic Center on Sunday was 102, which tied the record for the day set in 1926 but fell short of the year’s record--107 degrees, which was the downtown reading on July 1.

San Diego’s high of 89 also tied the record for the day, set in 1981.

Other parts of Southern California were even hotter: Death Valley, with a reading of 116, was one of the four hottest places in the United States--a distinction shared with Buckeye, Coolidge and Parker, Ariz.

Beaumont had a reading of 112. Monrovia, Woodland Hills, Palm Springs, Needles, Riverside and Barstow all reached 111, and it was 110 in Blythe, Ontario and San Bernardino.

The mercury reached 108 in Northridge; 107 in Pasadena; 106 in Burbank, Lancaster and San Gabriel; 104 in Montebello and 103 during the afternoon in Bishop and Simi Hills.

The California Highway Patrol said traffic was almost at a standstill along Pacific Coast Highway from Ventura to Santa Monica throughout the afternoon, while tow trucks kept busy with more than 200 breakdowns caused by overheating along freeways in the Los Angeles area.

“Some of the boiling radiators were predictable. The cars were old and in bad shape,” said CHP spokesman H. E. Means. “But others probably came as a surprise--newer cars that boiled over because they were stuck in traffic with air conditioning blasting away for a while.

“Either way, each breakdown meant more problems for the cars behind, though no one area was especially hard hit or troublesome--except, of course for PCH in the vicinity of Malibu.”

Brush fires caused still more traffic problems.

About 100 visitors were evacuated from Frank G. Bonelli Regional County Park near San Dimas when flames erupted in dense, dry grass and brush near the intersection of the Foothill and San Bernardino freeways. The San Bernardino Freeway was closed for more than an hour because of heavy smoke, resulting in a long and frustrating detour for several thousand motorists.

The Golden State Freeway was tied up for a while, too, while Los Angeles County Fire Department crews battled flames that engulfed an automobile at the side of the freeway in the Castaic area.

Relative humidity in Central Los Angeles ranged from 59% to 24%, which made the heat a little easier to bear. But the National Weather Service said all that may change--for the worse--today or Tuesday.

Sunday’s air was fairly dry, meteorologists explained, because the usual onshore flow of moist marine air was temporarily reversed, becoming a rather weak offshore flow because of the extreme heat inland.

More Humidity Expected

The moist air will start moving ashore again before long, though, and although this should lead to cooler temperatures, the difference may not be noticeable because of the increase in humidity.

Meanwhile, moisture trapped farther inland was spawning a series of thundershowers in Arizona, which could move westward over desert and mountain areas of Southern California during the next day or two, according to the Weather Service.

Pollution made the air unhealthful through most of the South Coast air basin Sunday.

More than a dozen first-stage alerts were called during the day from the inland valleys to Central Los Angeles to northern Orange County, and the Air Quality Management District said said things will be about the same today, with unhealthful air predicted for the San Gabriel-Pomona, Riverside-San Bernardino and San Fernando-Santa Clarita valleys, in coastal areas and in inland Orange County.

Good air quality was expected only in the low desert and around Big Bear Lake, the district said.