Blasts of Arctic Air Clamp Chill on Southland

Blasts of Arctic air, riding bitterly cold winds gusting up to 25 m.p.h., swept into Southern California on Thursday, pushing temperatures below freezing in some areas and prompting travelers advisories in desert and mountain areas.

The high temperature at Los Angeles’ Civic Center reached only 58 degrees, and the prospects of an overnight low in the 30s sent hundreds of homeless people scurrying for shelter in downtown missions.

“We’re quite full,” said a staff member at the Union Rescue Mission on Main Street. “We’ve had to turn them away in the hundreds, and that’s something we haven’t had to do for quite a while.”

Along Towne Avenue, between 2nd and 5th streets, scores of homeless men and women set up their impromptu cardboard shelters during the night.

Veteran staffers at area missions, however, said the streets were relatively empty because of the cold. They pointed out that the dozen or so people gathered around two barrel fires along 5th Street would normally be two or three times larger in warmer weather.

Where dozens of homeless normally bed down along Main Street near the Union Rescue Mission, fewer than 10 people were huddled in blankets and sleeping bags Thursday. The Weingart Rehabilitation Center on 6th Street, for instance, filled up at 3 p.m., staff members said.

“A lot of people will die tonight because of this weather,” Ted Hayes, an organizer of the homeless, told about 30 of his supporters as they rallied across the street from City Hall Thursday evening before moving into the Music Center tunnel. “This is as cold as I’ve ever seen it in California.”

By late Thursday there were no reports from authorities of any deaths among the homeless due to the cold weather.

Hayes told the group that they are the “warriors, the soldiers” who have to stand up for the rights of homeless people “who don’t have the strength to be here.”

The group set up Tent City II during the holidays as a temporary encampment for downtown’s transients before failure to secure liability insurance forced them to shut down. Hayes and two others were arrested last week after scuffling with state police officers at the site.

Singing protest songs and chanting, “We want sleep,” the homeless were met by nine Los Angeles County security officers when they entered the tunnel just before 9 p.m. Hayes and the officers agreed that the group would be committing no violations of county ordinances as long as its members did not “take up lodging.”

“As long as we’re walking around, there’s no problem,” Hayes said. “It’s ridiculous not to have shelter in weather like this. Moving into the tunnel is a definite political step to make the Board of Supervisors move and move rapidly on providing shelter.”

Security guard Ernie Gomez said no arrests were going to be made as long as “they don’t try to establish lodging on county property.”

However, he added, if any violence occurs, or if the homeless put down their bags and try to sleep, “we’ll call in the LAPD and make arrests.”

Thursday’s frigid weather prompted freeze warnings for agricultural areas as far south as San Diego, and low temperatures tonight will again dip into the 20s in some inland areas, such as the San Bernardino area.

Temperatures plummeted to zero in some portions of the southern Sierra.

“We’re very concerned (about the temperatures),” said Jess Arellano, a manager at Foothill Properties, a citrus and vegetable grower in Corona. “We haven’t had any big problems in about four years, but we’re worried now.”

Growers were planning to use wind machines, irrigation and smudge pots to combat the low temperatures.

Sheriff’s deputies in the Antelope Valley reported intermittent snow flurries Thursday in Lancaster, about 40 miles north of downtown Los Angeles. None of the snow stuck to the ground, however, a spokesman said.

High winds in the desert around Edwards Air Force Base, halted tests of the superlight Eagle pedal plane which designers believe will set a new distance record for human-powered flight.

The weather did not bode well for the Daedalus Project’s plans to complete testing and try for the record before the end of January, when the students and professors must return to MIT for classes. Winds up to 17 m.p.h. were likely for up to five days, authorities said.

A try at setting a new distance record has been tentatively set for Jan. 21.

Project manager John S. Langford, 29, emphasized that breaking the current 22-mile distance record was less important than gathering performance data to be used in designing another plane to fly 69 miles from Crete to the Greek mainland, the route the mythological Daedalus was thought by some to have taken on wings of feathers and wax in a tale 35 centuries old.

Strong north winds will continue through tonight as the cold air mass moves into the area from a low-pressure system over Nevada and Arizona, the National Weather Service said. A high-pressure system off the coast of Washington is pumping the cold air south, where the upper atmosphere low is “sucking” it into Southern California, the weather service said.

Travelers advisories will remain in effect today for strong, cold winds in mountain areas, with poor visibility in places because of snow and fog.

Similar advisories were issued for desert areas, where the winds will reduce visibility because of blowing sand and dust.

Gusting winds will become even stronger today, forecasters said, reaching 40 m.p.h. in some valleys and 50 m.p.h. over higher mountain ridges.

Skies will begin clearing this afternoon, with temperatures in the Los Angeles area continuing in the mid to upper 50s.

Thursday’s high of 58, though it felt chilly because of the wind factor, was nowhere near the previous record low maximum for the date, 49 degrees set in 1932. And the overnight low of 47 also fell far short of the record, 32, set in 1888, the weather service said.

The record low temperature for today’s date was also set in 1888 when the mercury dipped to 31. The minimum high temperature for a Jan. 16 is 50 degrees, recorded in 1907.

A slight warming trend will begin Saturday, especially in coastal and mountain areas, forecasters said. High temperatures should reach the low 60s Saturday and inch up to the mid 60s on Sunday. Weekend overnight lows will be in the 30s.

A small craft advisory was been issued for inner and outer coastal waters from Point Conception to the Mexican border.

Light and variable winds from 8 to 15 knots in inner waters will gust at times to 20 to 35 knots. Northwest winds will reach 20 to 30 knots tonight in outer waters, with gusts to 35 knots off Point Conception.