Santa Ana Hits A Hot Record: 102 Degrees

Clear and hot Santa Ana winds swept through the canyons Sunday, serving up the hottest Oct. 9 on record in Orange County and drawing tens of thousands of beach-goers to the sea.

Santa Ana hit a high of 102, breaking the previous record of 99 set in 1976. Official temperatures reached 100 degrees in El Toro, 91 in San Juan Capistrano and 76 in Newport Beach.

In Huntington Beach, where the temperature was 75, you could see, if not forever, at least the 26 miles to Catalina Island, according to lifeguard supervisor Mike Baumgartner. He estimated the crowd at 40,000, about double the usual for October. Riptides also kept lifeguards busy, he said.

The bone-dry Santa Ana winds under cloudless skies also sent the temperature to 102 degrees at the Los Angeles Civic Center by 2 p.m., beating the previous record of 98, which was set in 1976. The normal high for the date is 80 degrees.

Weather forecasters say the unseasonal heat will continue today, and predicted 97 degrees for Santa Ana.

“You guys are sizzling,” said meteorologist Janice Roth of WeatherData Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times.

But as hot as it was, Sunday’s peak was still several degrees cooler than Sept. 4, when the scorching 110-degree reading equaled the hottest day ever in Los Angeles and Santa Ana blasted its old record of 101, set in 1961, with a high of 108 degrees. The previous high this October was 89, which was reached Saturday.

Relative humidity ranged from 51% to 16%.

The hot, dry weather, which meteorologists termed a “mild Santa Ana condition,” stems from the influence of a high-pressure system sitting over northwest Washington that is causing a vast, clockwise rotation of winds over the western United States, according to Roth.

The slowly wheeling weather system causes hot, dry winds to blow from Nevada into Southern California. Besides the desert heat that the northeasterly winds bring, they have been preventing the formation of low clouds, which usually shield the area from direct sunlight for part of the day.

And the winds have also been heating up through compression as they flow over the San Gabriel Mountains and drop in altitude to sea level.

“That is why you have warmed up so significantly today,” Roth said.

To Abate on Tuesday

She added that the unseasonally hot temperatures--in the 90s--should continue through today. But as the high-pressure system moves east, the winds from Nevada should diminish and “on Tuesday, we expect it to return to more seasonal temperatures.”

Besides Los Angeles, the National Weather Service reported that other hot spots included Point Mugu, with 104 degrees, and Long Beach, with 100.

Even at the beaches, where the temperature was about 20 degrees cooler than inland, Nick Steers, senior Los Angeles County ocean lifeguard, said: “It’s quite warm. We’ve noticed that.

“We have had to hire extra lifeguards and open up towers that are normally closed in October.”