Weatherman’s Christmas Gift to L.A. Is Cool

It should be a good day for gathering with loved ones indoors--and staying there.

After the second-coldest Dec. 24 in Southern California this century--the high downtown reached a chilly 52--forecasters predicted more of the same for Christmas, accompanied by winds “hard and sharp as flint” (as Charles Dickens described Scrooge).

Of course, even the old miser might appreciate the fresh air ushered in by the winds, which varied from 30 m.p.h. along the coast and in the deserts to 40 m.p.h. in the mountains, where a wind advisory was in effect.

Dan Bowman, a meteorologist for WeatherData Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times, said the winds should begin to die down tonight.

Bowman said “the culprit is a low-pressure system out of Canada that’s pulling down cold Arctic air.”

The coldest Dec. 24 this century was in 1933, when the high reached only 51.

Bowman said unseasonal temperatures--a normal high this time of the year is around 67--would continue for at least another week. After the winds disappear, an influx of clouds expected at mid-week should blot out the sun a while longer, though overnight mercury readings should rise.

Low temperatures fell to 40 in the Civic Center Thursday, eight below the usual. A 37-degree reading is expected today. Relative humidity ranged from 48% to 16%.

Other overnight lows included 33 in Woodland Hills, 35 in Long Beach and 36 in Palm Springs. Freeze warnings were in effect Thursday night for many areas of Southern California, prompting citrus growers to take precautions.

Holiday traffic progressed fairly smoothly on Christmas Eve, except on Interstate 5, which was closed for several hours early Thursday in the mountainous Grapevine area because of icy, windy conditions. It was later reopened but motorists with trucks and campers were advised to stay off between Valencia and Tejon Pass because of the winds.

Surfers found Thursday’s weather delightful, not to mention the 54-degree water at Zuma in Malibu and other beaches.

About 30 of the board people were sighted “in wet suits of colorful reds, yellows and Christmas colors,” said Brian Turnbull, a Los Angeles County senior lifeguard-paramedic at Zuma.

He predicted even more for Christmas morning.

“They’ll be trying out their new surfboards,” he said.

About two dozen skiers started Christmas Eve day by pushing off through the thin snow at the 7,000-foot-high Kratka Ridge Ski Area in the Angeles National Forest.

“We’ve got a few rocks showing . . . but nothing you can’t avoid,” Forest Service spokeswoman Jan Swift said.

For others, however, it was a time for seeking shelter.

Supervising construction of a massive yellow and white striped tent at the park across the street from Los Angeles City Hall on Thursday, William G. Swain heard the same plaintive question from countless street people: “Can we come in?”

For most, the answer was, fortunately, yes.

The tent, donated by a group called Concerned Citizens for Community Improvement, was a surprise Christmas gift for the hundreds of homeless people in and around downtown’s Skid Row. It is expected to remain in place through the holidays.

“This is not Tent City and we’re not a Tent Anything,” Swain said. “All that we are trying to do is get some homeless people off the streets for the holidays.”

Elsewhere, city and county officials opened several other emergency shelters.

Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley welcomed the first three families invited to reside in city-owned mobile homes.

And activist Ted Hayes proceeded with plans for establishing a new homeless city--this one called Rainbow Tent City--on the frigid beach in Venice.

Officials said demand for shelter was high, especially in light of predictions for continuing cold conditions.

As homeless people braced for the night, scenes strangely out of place for a city renowned for its sunny climate were played out all over the streets of Los Angeles.

Clutches of homeless men rubbed their hands over flaming trash containers in the Mission District while other street people, bundled in thick blankets like characters from a Dickens novel, huddled in doorways.

Many waited restlessly for the various missions and shelters to open their doors at nightfall.

Bob Vilmur, the city’s homeless projects coordinator, said vans would ferry the homeless to four emergency shelters that will remain open through Sunday night. The city also planned to distribute hundreds of emergency hotel vouchers throughout the holiday weekend.

The shelters, in downtown Los Angeles, Pacoima, Venice and Wilmington, were expected to house about 500 people. An additional 500 received hotel vouchers.

“We’ve done a great deal to alert the community and the homeless that these services are available,” Vilmur said. “But we live in fear that there are people we’re unable to reach.”

Donna Dunn, the county’s homeless coordinator, said her office has distributed hotel vouchers to as many as 1,000 people, an all-time high for the county, which, along with all counties in the state, has the option of opening California National Guard armories for overnight shelters when the temperature drops below 40 degrees.

“We’re just watching the situation very closely and are prepared to take whatever action may be necessary,” Dunn said. “We’re . . . ready to open the armory if necessary.”

Maxene Johnston of the Weingart Center, a major Skid Row homeless center, said it appeared that most homeless people searching for shelter were finding it. She added that her center has been “packed to the gills” since the latest cold snap started.

Johnston said it was strange to watch so many people who are strangers to one another huddled together for a Christmas meal in the center’s cafeteria.

“People appear a little more melancholy than usual,” Johnston said. “We’re playing music and they’re eating a traditional dinner. But they’re sitting with people that they probably only met a few minutes before.”

At the three mobile homes, Mayor Bradley and Councilman Richard Alatorre presided over the ceremony as the families received their keys to the trailers parked next to the playground at the Ramona Gardens Housing Project in East Los Angeles.

The furnished mobile homes are among 102 purchased by the city as a means to provide housing for homeless families trying to get back on their feet. City officials said they hope to find places for the remaining trailers fairly soon.

Lucio Villanueva, an unemployed construction worker who had been living in his car with his wife and three children, was thrilled to be among the first offered shelter.

“It’s great,” a beaming Villa-nueva said. “It’s better than running around.”

Citrus growers from the San Joaquin Valley southward braced for a long battle against the chilly dry air to save their crops.

“Most of us were in our orchards all night Wednesday and it looks like we’ll be there every night through the weekend,” said Joel Nelson, president of California Citrus Mutual, a Fresno-based growers group.

Growers were sent scurrying to their groves late Wednesday as temperatures dipped below freezing.

By 3 a.m. Thursday, temperatures had dropped to as low as 23 degrees in some outlying Central Valley areas, forcing growers to turn on wind machines and run water through their orchards to ward off the killing chill.

“We won’t know how successful we were until the cold spell ends and we take a look at what damage there is,” Nelson said.

“A lot of growers will start flooding their groves in the late afternoon to keep the ground warm,” he said. “The wind machines will go on shortly after dark to keep the air circulating in the groves.”

Wind machines and flooding keep the groves about three to four degrees higher than the air around them, Nelson said.

Freeze damage to citrus can range from slight pulp damage, which will lower the quality, and thus the price, to loss of an entire crop in extreme cases.

Weather forecasters issued frost warnings throughout the Central Valley for Thursday night, saying temperatures were expected to drop into the mid-20s before dawn today.

The worst part was that the freezing overnight readings were expected to continue at least through the weekend.

The official low reading in Fresno early Thursday was 24, breaking by one degree the old record for the date set in 1974.

The outlook was similar in Los Angeles and San Diego counties, where freeze warnings for temperatures cold enough to cause considerable crop damage remained in effect Thursday night. The developing cold temperatures will be every bit as serious as the freeze of January, 1987, that caused over $30 million in agricultural losses in San Diego County, officials said.

And the warnings will continue at least through Saturday night, the weather service said.

Low temperatures approaching the record-breaking level were forecast for San Diego, where the expected minimum of 34 degrees is near the all-time record for Dec. 25, forecasters pointed out. The coldest temperature ever recorded in the city for Dec. 25 is 32 degrees in 1879.

Forecasters said the coldest nights of the freeze siege would be Thursday and Friday nights, with the coldest minimums near 19. Saturday night should be slightly warmer, but the freeze warning will not be lifted until Sunday night at the earliest.

The long range forecast called for a chance of rain in the Southland on Tuesday.