99 at Newport : Sizzler Breaks Record; Big-A Fans Swelter

Hot, dry Santa Ana winds drove Orange County’s temperatures to 99 Tuesday, shattering the record for the date by 12 degrees, raising tempers at the Angels’ season opener and forcing throngs to the beaches in search of relief.

Even the shores sizzled as normally cool Newport Beach posted the county’s high of 99 degrees, while up the coast, Huntington Beach registered 95 and Seal Beach topped out at 94. It was cooler at Laguna Beach, which reached 80, and at San Clemente, which reported 70 on the sand.

“Loads of people are in the water,” said Lifeguard Jim Turner at Newport Beach, where a summer-size crowd of 35,000 was reported Tuesday. Altogether, lifeguards estimated more than 100,000 people jammed onto Orange County’s beaches--about twice as many as normal for a spring weekday.

Tempers Hot at Ballpark

The county’s high may have been in Newport Beach but the hot spot was Anaheim Stadium where the Angels faced the White Sox in their season opener before a sweltering crowd of 33,265. A bench-clearing brawl erupted in the top of the ninth inning when California reliever Bob McClure hit Chicago batter Ivan Calderon with a pitch. Both players were ejected, but the White Sox went on to win the game, 9-2.

In nearby Santa Ana, the thermometer hit 98, while in San Juan Capistrano, it reached 96. Overnight lows in the county Tuesday ranged from 50 at San Juan Capistrano to 57 at Santa Ana.

The 99-degree reading for Newport Beach broke the county’s previous record high of 87 for the date, set in Anaheim during 1923, according to Orange County historian Jim Sleeper. The reading fell only 2 degrees short of snapping Orange County’s all-time high for the entire month of April, which was 101 in 1966, Sleeper said.

The county’s average high in April is 73, Sleeper said.

No promise of relief is expected until the end of the week, when the weather forecast calls for a cooling trend. With temperatures today expected to climb into the 90s, the record high of 84 degrees for this date--which was set in 1904--is virtually certain to be broken.

The record-breaking heat came as a jolt to most Orange County residents, who awakened Tuesday to a National Weather Service prediction of a high of only 73 degrees at Newport Beach and 86 in Santa Ana. Forecasters for the weather service could not explain Tuesday why their predictions went so far awry, although meteorologist Pat Rowe said the Santa Ana condition is “typical” for this time of year.

Rick Dittmann, a meteorologist for WeatherData Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times, said the current Santa Ana is fueled by a very strong upper-level, high-pressure system over the western United States combined with surface pressure over the Great Basin.

That high-pressure system is funneling hot, desert air over the Southern California mountains, across the coastal basin and out to sea, Dittmann said. As the air moves from land to sea, it flows down the mountain slopes and, as it does, compression warms it significantly and keeps the region dry. Relative humidity Tuesday in the Southland ranged from 51% to 16%.

Three-digit temperatures were recorded throughout the Southland. It hit 101 in San Gabriel, Long Beach and Monrovia and the mercury topped out at 100 in Los Angeles, Culver City, Montebello and Ontario, the National Weather Service said. In San Diego County, the temperature soared to a near-record 90 degrees at Lindbergh Field, prompting the weather service to issue a heat advisory through Thursday.

The heat advisory warned against strenuous activities in the hot sun, where temperatures were expected to be high enough to cause sunstroke, heat cramps and dehydration, weather service officials said.

In Orange County, no heat-related injuries were reported. Nor did electrical utilities report any problems meeting a sharp upsurge in power demand.

Usage at Southern California Edison, San Diego Gas & Electric and Anaheim Utilities, which all service Orange County, was reported significantly above normal but nowhere near record levels.

If the heat wave continues, however, the utilities will experience steadily higher customer loads, said Ray Merchant, a spokesman for Anaheim Utilities. For Sunday and Monday, he said, the load was 340 megawatts. As of 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, the load was up to 385 megawatts.

“If the heat continues, it could reach over 400,” Merchant said, noting that the all-time high for Anaheim Utilities was 493 megawatts.

Air-conditioning installation and repair companies, meanwhile, were deluged with calls for service Tuesday.

“Our service man has been out all day. I know he has people promised up until 7 tonight and there is more tomorrow,” Chris Knecht, vice president of Anaheim Heating & Cooling Inc., said Tuesday. “People are panicked. It’s the first week of April and it’s 90 degrees.”

“During the air-conditioning season they seem to panic a little more than they do during the heating season,” added Tom Kelly, owner of Kelly’s Air Conditioning & Heating in Garden Grove. “When they call it’s like, ‘You got to get out here or I’m going to die.’ Like it’s my fault it doesn’t work.”

Frozen yogurt and ice cream shops also reported brisk business, with customers lined up outside the doors at some locations.

“We had tons today,” said a jubilant John Burke, manager of the Penguin’s yogurt stand on Bristol Street in Santa Ana. “We’ve had 165 people (by mid-afternoon), when normally we have about 60 or 70 by that time.”

Enclosed shopping malls--with controlled temperatures in the 60s--were also a popular refuge.

Anne Zeppo, a spokeswoman for Brea Mall, said Tuesday that she noticed more shoppers at the mall. Rachel Sandoval, spokeswoman for the Mall of Orange, said the mall crowd was up 54% over a typical weekday.

“They walk in to get cool,” Sandoval said. “They buy yogurt, ice cream and just sit around in our food court.”

HOW HOT WAS IT?

Highest temperatures recorded in selected Orange County locations today.

City Degrees Santa Ana 98 El Toro 97 Newport Beach 99 Laguna Beach 80 San Clemente 70 Seal Beach 94 San Juan Capistrano 96 Huntington Beach 95

Source: Beach lifeguards and National Weather Service