Mercury Soars to Record for Date as Thousands Cool Off at Beaches

Temperatures shot to a record high that was nearly 20 degrees above normal Sunday when the high reached 87 degrees at Lindbergh Field.

Roadways to the beach were clogged as crowds headed for the ocean to leave inland temperatures that reached the 90s when warm winds invaded the county during the morning.

A Santa Ana condition forecasters had expected to only slightly influence San Diego blew in Sunday for a day of hot, dry weather.

Humidity that was about 80% early Sunday morning began plunging by 10 a.m. when it dropped to 52%. By noon it was 43% and reached a low of 18% by 3 p.m. at Lindbergh Field.

The Sunday temperature downtown reached a record high at 2:16 p.m., erasing the old record of 84 degrees, set 65 years ago.

It was hotter in the valleys than the deserts Sunday. Visitors to the San Diego Wild Animal Park sought shade when the temperature reached 92, and in Lemon Grove, Chula Vista and Spring Valley the high reached 91.

In the desert the high reached 88 in Borrego and 85 in El Centro.

It got to 90 in La Mesa and Poway; 89 at Brown and Montgomery fields, and El Cajon, Escondido and Vista; 88 in National City and Imperial Beach and 86 degrees in Coronado.

It was 76 degrees in Del Mar and 71 in Oceanside.

It was the first day of daylight-saving time, and lifeguards at beaches all along the county coastline began extended hours, just in time for the heavy Sunday crowds at the shore.

About 8,800 people hit the beach in Oceanside, and an estimated 11,500 were swimming and sunning in Del Mar. About 15,500 people plopped towels and chairs on county beaches.

The number of city beachgoers reached about 95,000 Sunday and lifeguards rescued 21 people from Ocean Beach to Torrey Pines State Beach.

City lifeguard Tom Harvey said the Mission Beach boardwalk looked like it does on the Fourth of July.

Visitors on bicycles, roller skates and foot “kept bumping into each other--we had minor first aid” he said.

At times it was “was so congested it was almost at a standstill,” he added.

Visitors were still crowding the beaches in the early evening.

At an uncrowded stretch of Torrey Pines State Beach, a pilot set down his single-engine plane safely on the sand after he had engine trouble about 6 p.m.

Patrick Chipman told firefighters he sought an uncrowded stretch of sand at the south end of the state beach when he realized he would have to put the plane down. Chipman told San Diego police he believed he may have run out of fuel.

Chipman was not injured and nobody on the beach was hurt, a fire department spokesman said.

National Weather Service forecasters said the temperatures will reach only into the 70s and 80s today but will continue warmer and drier than normal until tonight.

Ocean breezes should bring back night and morning lows clouds and higher humidity by Tuesday and seasonal weather will probably return Wednesday.