Easter Sunday Expected to Be Warm but Hazy

Easter weekend weather in Orange County is turning out to be warm but drab.

Hazy skies, which on Saturday made beaches look more like early winter rather than early spring, are predicted to continue today throughout the county. Temperatures are expected to be mild today with a high in the upper 70s, but lack of direct sun is again likely to keep the beaches sparsely populated.

Despite spring break, a time when students from all over Southern California normally flock to Orange County beaches, the crowds were small Saturday in Newport Beach and Huntington Beach. Lifeguards said there simply wasn’t any sun for people to bask in, and the ocean waters were still too cold for prolonged swimming.

“We had about 5,000 at the beach today, and usually at this time of year, with spring break and good weather, we’d be having anywhere from 20,000 to 45,000,” said Andrew Weissenberger, a senior lifeguard at Huntington City Beach. “The water temperature today was 59 degrees, and so few people wanted to get in.”

In Newport Beach, senior lifeguard Marshall Macknicki said the crowd Saturday was about 30,000--about half the size of crowds of past sunny Easter weekends. “The people are just walking around,” he said. “They’re not too many in the water. The water temperature is 61 degrees.”

The overcast skies that kept Orange County sunless were also found over most of Southern California.

Although National Weather Service officials predicted thundershowers in the mountain and desert areas early today, they said they did not expect rain along the coast. Partly cloudy skies and muggy weather were forecast for this afternoon.

Good air quality also was expected, ending a spell of unusually heavy smog this month.

Air Quality Management District officials said this month was the smoggiest March since 1974 in Southern California. Five first-stage smog alerts--when the air is considered unhealthful--were called during the month, officials said.