Relief From Heat Expected as Marine Air Flows Ashore

Southern California was hot and muggy again Wednesday, but forecasters said things will be getting better as the week gets older.

“Night and morning fog and low clouds will be increasing along the Southern California coast from Santa Barbara to San Diego, which indicates an onshore flow of marine air and should bring considerable relief west of the mountains,” said Cary Schudy, meteorologist-spokesman for Earth Environment Service, a private forecasting firm based in San Francisco.

“Mountains and deserts will remain warm,” he said, “and there should be quite a bit of shower and thundershower activity through the next day or two.”

Some shower and thundershower activity was reported along the coast from Santa Barbara to Ventura on Wednesday afternoon, and more showers were reported in various parts of the Mojave.

The high temperature at Los Angeles Civic Center on Wednesday reached 87 degrees--five degrees short of the record for the day--and relative humidity ranged from a damp 39% to a soggy 90%. Three high temperature records fell, however. Wednesday’s high of 100 degrees recorded at the University of California, Riverside, was eight degrees above the old record of 92 for the date; Bakersfield’s 104 beat the old mark of 94, set in 1982, and Oakland’s high of 84 broke the old record of 80 set in 1978.

Death Valley had the state’s hottest reading at 110 degrees.

The National Weather Service said it should be five or six degrees cooler in Los Angeles and vicinity today.