Southland’s Sweltering but Heat May Ease Off

Southern California continued to broil Wednesday, with the temperature in Orange County climbing to match the 97-degree record high for the date, but forecasters said it might be a bit cooler today--at least along the coast.

By noon, the temperature in Anaheim already had reached 97, equaling the record set on Aug. 20, 1897, but short of Tuesday’s record-shattering 100.

Cooler temperatures are expected, with patchy, early morning low clouds and fog near the coast, forecasters said.

In Los Angeles, the temperature at the Civic Center reached 97 degrees Wednesday--three degrees higher than the 94-degree record for the date set in 1887. It was the second record broken in a little more than 12 hours.

Another Record Falls

The record for the warmest night for the date was broken in the early morning hours Wednesday. The temperature never fell below 76 in Los Angeles, breaking the record of 73 degrees set in 1972.

Today, high temperatures in Orange County are expected to range from the mid-70s near the beaches to the upper 80s inland.

Air will be unhealthy for sensitive people today in the northern and central areas of the county, according to the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

Wednesday’s hot weather sent thousands of people to the beaches, while others sweltered inside cars, school classrooms and offices without air conditioning.

About 25,000 people flocked to Huntington Beach, where lifeguards described ideal conditions.

“It’s only 75 degrees, the surf is only one to two feet and we’ve got good sunshine--it’s nice here,” said Kai Weisser, lifeguard supervisor.

Weisser attributed cool beach temperatures, in part, to colder-than-normal water temperatures that hovered around 59 degrees. Normally, ocean temperatures for late August are in the low 70s.

Inland temperatures soared Wednesday for the second day. Santa Ana reported 94 degrees and El Toro 93.

Students enrolled in Santa Ana’s year-round school program will get a reprieve from the weather today, said school officials, who declared a “modified day” for Thursday.

“That means students will start at the same time, but we’ve shortened each period by 10 minutes so they get out about an hour earlier,” Diane Thomas, Santa Ana Unified School District spokeswoman, said.

Five of the district’s 13 elementary schools on year-round schedules are not fully air-conditioned, Thomas said. The district has applied for state funds to purchase air conditioners, but approval has not yet been granted, she said.

Employees Sweltering

Employees at Martin Elementary School, described at the district office as “partially air-conditioned,” were sweltering in the mid-day heat. Secretarial staff had to rely on desk fans for comfort, a school secretary said.

Some children have complained of headaches and bloody noses, said Principal Helen Romeo, but “we’ve had no major problems.”

Romeo said that when it gets too hot, teachers often hold classes outdoors in the shade of large trees that rim the school property.

National Weather Service meteorologists are blaming the hot spell on a high-pressure area in Arizona. That condition, they said, spawns clockwise winds that move mostly hot, dry air across the border into the Southland from northern Mexico.

But that air is unstable; it contains storm cells and moisture at its edges--little pockets of violence picked up over the Sea of Cortez and the Pacific Ocean, the meteorologists say.

These cells can, and frequently do, become brief-but-potent thunderstorms that can hammer isolated desert and mountain areas with torrential rain and lightning.

Meanwhile, a heat-created low-pressure area at ground level inland coaxes marine air across the coastline to produce fog and low clouds that can reach as far as the inland valleys before burning off in the early mornings.

High in Low 90s

The Weather Service said Central Los Angeles should see a high in the low 90s today, with relative humidity (which ranged from 27% to 60% Wednesday) dropping back into the teens during the afternoons. Beaches should find their afternoon temperatures holding in the near-perfect mid-70s.

Lifeguards said nearly 700,000 people spent at least a part of Wednesday at beaches from Zuma to Newport--an unusually high turnout for a weekday.

No problems were reported, aside from the usual ones of heat exhaustion and sunburn.

Southland firefighters found the heat less than comfortable; there was no repeat of the minor epidemic of brush fires that strained fire department resources and damaged several homes and other structures in the Glendale, Pasadena and La Canada Flintridge areas, but the situation remained tense and the only major blaze of the afternoon drew instant response.

Ten Forest Service engine companies, 25 Los Angeles County companies, a helicopter, two camp crews and two engine companies from the cities of Sierra Madre and Monrovia were dispatched to battle a blaze that flamed out of control in brushland near Sawpit Dam on the boundary of the Angeles National Forest.

The blaze was reported at 1:30 p.m., and by late afternoon U.S. Forestry Service spokeswoman Marilyn Hartley said it had blackened 125 acres and forced closure of Chantry Road in the northern Sierra Madre. No homes were threatened by the fast-moving fire, and no injuries were reported.

By late afternoon, the Southern California Air Quality Management District had posted first-stage alerts in the southwest, northwest and central sections of the San Bernardino Valley, in the eastern and western San Gabriel Valley, northern Orange County and Pomona-Walnut Valley.

The AQMD said air quality will be poor again today in most parts of the Los Angeles basin.

Times staff writers George Ramos and Ted Thackrey Jr. contributed to this story.