Breeze Cools Coast, but Heat--and Smog--May Return

Baking Californians--particularly those residing along the coast--got unexpected relief from sizzling temperatures Monday when an ocean breeze helped temper the heat and prevented smog levels from rising to dangerous levels in the Los Angeles Basin.

But it is going to be touch-and-go for the rest of the week, and the soaring temperatures could return on a moment’s notice, forecasters warned.

“Sometimes we’re at the mercy of Mother Nature for what to predict,” said meteorologist Dave Beusterien of WeatherData Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times. “And today could be like Sunday--back to the heat and haze.”

San Francisco Record

Beusterien’s reference was to San Francisco’s record-shattering high of 103 degrees on Sunday, the 90-degree-plus temperatures and smog that blanketed the Los Angeles area that day and the sizzling heat in the San Joaquin Valley, where in Fresno on Sunday the mercury climbed to 108 degrees.

The searing temperatures and accompanying winds kept firefighters scrambling Monday as they battled to contain a growing wildfire that broke out Sunday, burning 2,500 acres of dry chaparral in the Los Padres National Forest near San Luis Obispo.

About 400 firefighters, including the crews of seven air tankers and two helicopters, were battling the blaze in dense forest 12 miles east of that Central California city, said U.S. Forest Service spokesman Earl Clayton. No injuries were reported and no structures had been damaged. Containment was expected by late today.

Fires in Mountains

Several blazes erupted Monday afternoon along California 88 in Amador County near scattered mountain homes, prompting authorities to warn residents that they might have to evacuate.

The state Department of Forestry said up to six fires broke out during 100-degree temperatures in the rural region east of Jackson, 45 miles southeast of Sacramento.

Investigators said they suspect that the blazes were set by an arsonist because six wildfires broke out within a one-hour period.

Jacqueline Switzer of the South Coast Air Quality Management District said that given Sunday’s heat and pollution levels, it was expected that a second-stage smog alert might be triggered on Monday in some areas of the agency’s four-county Southland region for the first time in two years. But an ocean breeze saved the day.

“We had pretty much stagnant air,” she said, “but we had an onshore flow of air from the ocean. It was unexpected.”

First-Stage Alerts

Some areas of the Los Angeles Basin had first-stage smog alerts over the weekend, she said, with some of the worst air being found in the Azusa-Glendora region. A first-stage alert is triggered when the agency’s Pollutant Standard Index reaches 200 or more--a point at which residents are urged to curtail outdoor activities.

The culprit causing the soaring temperatures and, at least in the Southland, trapping foul air was a high-pressure system hovering over Northern California, according to Beusterien.

Looking ahead, he said that Californians desiring some relief this week will “have to pray for that onshore (ocean) flow to come during afternoon hours to save them from very hot temperatures.”

Cooler westerly winds of 13 m.p.h. held Monday’s Los Angeles Civic Center high to 79 degrees, or five degrees cooler than Sunday, he said. A high humidity reading of 67% still kept residents wiping their brows, however.

San Francisco Bay Area residents got relief when northwest winds exceeding 20 m.p.h. helped temperatures drop about 20 degrees Monday afternoon.

But the ocean breeze was not strong enough to bring relief to the inland areas. Residents of Sacramento and Fresno--where readings peaked at 104 on Monday--had to endure another day of a prolonged heat wave.

Red Bluff topped the Northern California heat list with 112 degrees and Redding recorded 111, tying a record for the date set in 1956. Even though temperatures moderated somewhat in the Southland, Southern California Edison Co. reported that Monday’s electrical demand, primarily due to increased use of commercial and residential air conditioners, produced the year’s second-heaviest load for the utility.

Edison spokesman Dave Barron said the 13,611 megawatts used by the utility’s 3.7 million customers, in an area from Santa Barbara to the Mexican border and east to Nevada, reflected “quite a bit of demand, (but) no crisis.”

In Los Angeles, Department of Water and Power officials said that so far there were no major problems in meeting the increased water and power demand brought by the hot weather.