Civic Center High of 81 Was Nearly a Record : From the Weather, You’d Never Know It’s February

It wasn’t much like February on Thursday as a warm Santa Ana wind condition settled over Southern California and seemed prepared to hang around through Saturday at least, with more gusts below the canyons and a touch of smog.

With a large high-pressure system stalled inland, the Civic Center high was 81 degrees. Today and Saturday, said the National Weather Service, it should be in the 70s at the beaches and in the mid-70s to low-80s in the valleys.

By Sunday, some high cloudiness should move in, along with a cooling trend.

Nears the Record

Thursday’s downtown maximum was only three degrees below the record high for the date set in 1954.

The 15- to-30 m.p.h. winds out of the passes and canyons are expected to decrease gradually on Saturday, said Cary Schudy of Earth Environment Service, a private weather service based in San Francisco.

There wasn’t enough wind in some areas Thursday to scrub away all the air pollution, however. A first stage alert--meaning that the air was unhealthful for everyone--was called at 9 a.m. in South-Central Los Angeles because of carbon monoxide, but was canceled an hour later.

The South Coast Air Quality Management District predicted more of the same for Metropolitan Los Angeles and coastal areas today.

Inversion Blamed

Jim Birakos, deputy executive director of the AQMD, pointed out that this is the time of the year when the inversion layer keeps car exhaust fumes from rising after the morning traffic crush.

Southern California water officials, meantime, said it is too early to worry about the Sierra snow shortage that has resulted from the state’s stingiest rainy season in a decade and the poor runoff into Northern California rivers.

National Weather Service hydrologist Gary Barbato said in San Francisco that with more than half of the rain season already past, the northern and central parts of the state have had less than 30% of their normal season precipitation.

The lack of rainfall is being blamed on a persistent “Pacific high,” a ridge of high pressure that usually slips south during these months, allowing Gulf of Alaska storms to swing down into California. This year, however, the high has remained to the north.

Rain Still Below Normal

(Southern California, which normally has a total of 8.71 inches of rain by this time, has had only 5.38 inches so far.)

Maurice Roos, of the state Department of Water Resources, said, “We ought to have about two thirds of our snow pack by this time and it looks like we only have about one quarter.”

For the moment, though, all that seemed more of a threat to San Francisco and other Northern California population centers than to the Southland, where much of the water supply comes from the Colorado River.

Jay Malinowski, of the Metropolitan Water District, noted that MWD supplies about half the water dispensed by various water districts in the urban areas and coastal plain of Southern California. Of that portion, he pointed out, half comes from the Colorado “which is running unusually high and has been for two or three years” because of heavy rainfall over the Rockies.

Not to Worry, Yet

With that supply and with plenty of water in reservoirs, Malinowski said, there is no worry in this part of the state, yet.

“But if we have a continuation of this kind of weather next year,” he conceded, “then we will have some problems, because there is no indication the Colorado River is going to remain at this high flow.”

Private forecaster Schudy said, “If we don’t get some significant rain in the next couple of months, we’re going to be in for an awful fire season, if nothing else.”

Southern California mountains and high deserts should have maximum readings from the mid-50s to mid-60s on Saturday.