Summer Simmers On, Delaying the Rise of Fall

Hot, sticky weather that kept many Orange County residents indoors lured many others to ice cream shops Wednesday.

“We’ve had a lot of people coming in for the sodas and the milkshakes so they can sit at the nice booths and get out of the heat,” said Donna Woods of the Shaw’s of San Francisco ice cream parlor in Anaheim, where the temperature climbed to a muggy high of 93 degrees.

One man came in twice for a milkshake--once on the way to a business meeting and once on the way home, said Woods, daughter of the ice cream parlor owner. “He said it was so good that all he could think about (during his meeting) was the milkshake.”

Cool and collected herself near the freezer case, Woods said, “Everybody who walks in here has sweat on their brow.”

The hot weather “didn’t come in the summer, so it had to come in the fall,” she said.

The 93-degree reading at Anaheim’s water and power facility was the highest temperature recorded in Orange County on Wednesday. But the official National Weather Service high for the county--90 degrees in San Juan Capistrano--was not far behind. Highs elsewhere included 88 in Santa Ana, 84 in El Toro and 78 in Newport Beach.

Despite the heat, Wednesday’s official high was well below the county record for the date, 112 degrees in Santa Ana in 1939.

The heat and humidity were brought on by a weak low-pressure system in the upper atmosphere and moist air moving up from Baja California. Relative humidity was recorded at 75% in Newport Beach, 57% in El Toro and 51% at John Wayne Airport.

The weather pattern had the effect of trapping pollutants, sending the ozone count to unhealthful levels for inland Orange County. But the condition was not severe enough to warrant issuing a first-stage smog alert, according to the South Coast Air Quality Management District. Moderate smog was forecast for today.

A light breeze kept coastal Laguna Beach cooler than most of the inland areas. Lifeguard supervisor Sam Taylor said the mercury reached only the comfortable mid-70s Wednesday.

“The water was 68, and so it was definitely summer conditions without summer crowds--there were only a couple of thousand people on the beaches today, and the surf was relatively calm,” Taylor said.

Weather forecasters said the hot spell promises to continue through the weekend.