Labor Day Weekend to Be Hot, Sunny

Southern California skies will remain sunny and the temperature hot throughout the long Labor Day weekend, the National Weather Service said Thursday--but surfing should be exceptional in most places as Hurricane Olaf churns itself away to nothingness in the Pacific.

High temperature Thursday in Santa Ana was 93 degrees, with relative humidity ranging from 30% to 79%. Forecasters said it should be pretty much the same for the next few days.

Humidity, however, is expected to rise.

Hot weather and relatively large surf made Thursday a “perfect” Southern California beach day.

“When you think of a gorgeous California beach day you think of today, “ said Lt. Larry Moore of the San Clemente Marine Safety Division.

Few Rescues

Moore said swimmers and surfers enjoyed 3- to 5-foot waves. Ocean temperature for San Clemente beaches was a high 70 degrees, while air temperatures along the coast averaged 78.

Despite the unusual surf size, lifeguards reported only a light number of surf rescues with no major injuries.

Subtropical moisture from Olaf, downgraded to the status of a tropical depression and moving southwest into oblivion, is streaming over Northern and Central California. The weather service said a southerly flow of air around the high-pressure area now dominating the Southwest could bring a chance of thundershowers to mountain and desert areas in the southern part of the state.

That inland high-pressure system is the key to the weekend’s weather picture, meteorologists explained, with only the most minor cooling trend--fully compensated by the rise in humidity--expected until the latter part of next week.

Early Morning Relief

A thin layer of marine air is expected to bring night and morning low clouds to the coast.

Coastal temperatures today and Saturday are expected to be from 76 to 84 degrees with overnight lows in the mid- to upper-60s.

Olaf hammered some south-facing beaches with breakers up to 20 feet high for a while earlier in the week, but that was all over by Thursday afternoon. The weather service predicted 3-foot surf at 12-second intervals at most beaches through the early part of the weekend, with westerly afternoon winds to 18 m.p.h., water temperatures from 66 to 70 degrees and air temperature 6 or 8 degrees warmer.

Waves at Newport Beach were still reaching double digit figures Thursday. Lifeguards reported surf as high as 10 feet moving from a strong southerly direction. However, it is expected to diminish today, lifeguards said.

Up the coast at Bolsa Chica State Beach in Huntington Beach, the surf was running a bit smaller, but Lifeguard Supervisor Mike Starkweather described conditions as “probably the best surfing waves Bolsa’s produced all summer.”

Smooth Sailing

Labor Day yachtsmen should find the inshore waters crowded, with winds light and variable in the mornings, rising southwest to 16 knots in the afternoons from Point Conception to the Mexican border. Farther out, the wind should be northeast to 25 knots with combined seas to 8 feet, the weather service said.