Weather’s Great, and Nice Weekend’s in Store

Helen Kibbler of Boston basked on the sands of Newport Beach Thursday, enjoying the warm California sunshine and reminiscing about the weather she left behind.

“Three weeks ago I was shoveling snow,” said Kibbler, dressed in a blue-and-black-striped bathing suit. Beside her was her mother, Edna Kibbler of Rancho Cucamonga, who was listening to songs by Dean Martin and Perry Como beneath the clear blue sky. Even in her coldest moments of anticipation weeks ago, Helen Kibbler had not expected such an idyllic scene.

“I knew it was going to be beautiful compared to Massachusetts, but not quite this beautiful,” the Bostonian said.

The unseasonably dry, windless and warm temperatures this week have drawn large crowds of sunbathers eager for winter tans, lifeguards in Newport Beach and Huntington Beach reported Thursday. In Laguna Beach and San Clemente, officials said crowds were small to average, but that didn’t stop the lifeguards from enjoying the weather.

“It is just gorgeous down here,” said Mike Brousard, lifeguard at San Clemente State Beach, who spotted only about 20 on the beach. “The dolphins are swimming by.. . . It doesn’t get much nicer than this.”

The big test will be this weekend, said John Blauer, marine safety officer in Newport Beach, where the temperature reached 70 degrees Thursday, attracting about 7,000 beach-goers. “If it’s nice, we should have a fair crowd on Saturday. Those who aren’t Christmas shopping will probably be here.”

A warm weekend is in store, the National Weather Service predicted. Thanks to an area of high pressure stalled over Idaho, Southern California should continue to enjoy summer-like temperatures through the weekend. Moderate northeast winds will blow through the mountains, forecasters said.

The mild Santa Ana condition that has been keeping days warm and skies sunny for most of the week will begin to fade as the days pass, however, and there could be some fog or low clouds along the coast Saturday or Sunday nights, the Weather Service said.

High temperature in Santa Ana Thursday was 83, the Fire Department reported. Forecasters said there will be a few degrees of cooling through Tuesday.

Beaches should remain clear through the daylight hours, with some patchy overnight and early-morning fog. Air temperatures will be in the upper 60s or low 70s, ocean temperature 10 to 15 degrees cooler, sea breezes to 14 m.p.h. at times and surf running to three feet on a 12-second interval.

Yachtsmen should find a bit of fog in the early mornings, with northwest winds to 14 knots and moderate combined seas from Point Conception to the Mexican border.

Mountains were expected to remain generally clear, with winds rising to 25 m.p.h. or more at times, especially through the canyons. Daytime temperatures at resort levels were expected to reach the upper 50s to lower 60s, dropping overnight to the 20s in higher, more exposed areas.

The Sierra was expected to be sunny, with temperatures ranging from the 20s to the 50s, although some patchy morning fog was predicted for the northern part of the range.

Sunny in the Desert

Sunny days were forecast for the deserts, with temperatures ranging from the 30s to the 70s in the high desert and from the 40s to the mid-80s in the low desert.

Lifeguards at Orange County’s beaches said that Thursday’s surf was only one to two feet.

“It’s like a big bay,” said Herb White, a lifeguard at Huntington Beach State Beach, which hosted about 2,000 sunbathers Thursday. The sub-60-degree water temperature kept most people on the sand, he added.

White said the sunbathing crowd has been mixed--a few tourists, quite a few students cramming for finals, and many “basic housewives who grab the kids and head for the beach.”

Huntington Beach’s city strand hosted about 1,500 visitors Thursday, and a Laguna Beach lifeguard estimated the crowd there at 1,200, a smaller number than earlier in the week.

At San Clemente’s city beach, the crowd was sparse. “Everybody’s working two jobs trying to get ready for Christmas,” said lifeguard Richard Chew.

Back on the sands of Newport Beach, Pepper Davies of Irvine was sunning herself while listening to Jack Jones on the radio singing “Let It Snow.”

Class on the Beach

A student at Christ College of Irvine, Davies was at the beach with fellow students and a professor, who was ostensibly helping the students study for a final. In what subject?

“Oceanography,” said student Meg Nitz of Garden Grove. “Warm fronts and cold fronts. Especially warm fronts today.”

The professor, Mary Holl of Irvine, said she was leaving today to visit relatives in Chicago. “My dad said the temperature last night was up to 1 below (zero). I said, ‘Dad, I’m going to the beach.’ ”