. . . When You’re Not, You’re Not

Summer in the San Fernando Valley can be like living inside a baked potato compared to area coastal cities, where temperatures can be as much as 30 degrees cooler, according to the National Weather Service.

And when folks in downtown Los Angeles say it’s hot enough to use the sidewalk as a griddle, it’s a fair bet that in the flatlands of Van Nuys, car trunks are being used as ovens.

But there are spots in the Valley, residents claim, where geographical conditions coax temperatures down a few degrees. Most point to the west, where cooler ocean breezes are said to reach higher elevations. But lower elevations, such as canyons, where trees provide shade, also are said to provide some relief.

“I have lived here since 1961, and I have definitely ascertained that it is 10 degrees cooler,” said Margaret (Jade) Green, who lives in one of the older houses in Woodland Hills, built by developer William Girard around 1920. Green, 82, whose home looks like a country cottage with its gabled roof, gingerbread trim and white picket gate, lives one mile south of Ventura Boulevard just off Canoga Avenue.

Green’s late husband, Sammy, used to routinely check a thermometer in the kitchen window that he said registered the drop in temperature. “When you hit Dumetz (just south of Ventura Boulevard) on a hot, hot day with the window open in the car, you can immediately notice the difference,” Green said. “The air itself is just absolutely cooler.”

Green and her neighbors attribute the respite to plenty of lush vegetation and a slight change in elevation, which seems to channel wayward ocean air through surrounding canyons.

“I think there’s a funnel effect coming through Topanga Canyon,” said Scott Palmer, 36, who bought a home five years ago just down the block from Green. “I think it’s an ocean breeze, plus that wind blows and clears out this area. You can look from my back deck and see a clear blue sky and then go down to Ventura Boulevard and it’s smoggy--real intimidating.”

Palmer’s wife, Annie, 34, said the area’s reputation for coolness has kept them from moving to other parts of the Valley. “It’s too darn hot,” she said. “And windy too. We’ll go down to Ventura Boulevard wrapped in our sweaters and see people coming from the north side dressed in shorts.”

Although some residents claim their neighborhoods are downright freezing, Arthur Lessard, meteorologist-in-charge at the National Weather Service in Southern California, said there are no statistics to back up the assertions. Daily local temperature data is not kept on file by the service.

“It’s hard to pin down temperature differences without any actual raw data,” Lessard said, adding that the Valley turns into an Amana range in the summer because the Santa Monica Mountains form a barrier against cool marine air.

The rule of thumb, it seems, is to go west of the San Diego Freeway when seeking relief from torrid Valley summers. Besides higher elevations that residents say attract cool marine air, some mountains shade valleys, providing morning and afternoon cool periods.

In Calabasas, Piuma Road, just off Malibu Canyon Road, is considered one of the coolest spots in the West Valley.

“It was a bone-chilling cold,” said Deane Leavenworth, who once rented a home at Ranch Lancelyn on Piuma Road. “It was so cold there because of the mountains, the way they were set up--and because it was wide open. It was as though you lived in a crater of a volcano. And it was cool all year round.”

Leavenworth, 33, who lives in Woodland Hills, explained that the sun would not hit his old Calabasas ranch home until 11 a.m. “But then it would get hotter than blazes, and by mid-afternoon, the sun would disappear and the cold would return,” he said.

Breezes flowing down the San Gabriel Mountains fan residents in the La Canada-Flintridge area, residents said.

“There’s always a breeze up here,” said Dianne Endsley, who has lived in the La Canada foothills for 12 years. “It’s about 5 to 10 degrees cooler.”

Endsley, 51, said Chevy Chase, Scholl and Verdugo Woodlands Canyons in Glendale also are cool spots. “I remember getting off school and walking through those canyons,” she said. “It was always cooler.”

The Valley’s furnace-like conditions are perhaps most evident when one crosses the Sepulveda Pass going north on the San Diego Freeway. “On a really hot day, that’s an incredible transition,” said Larry Weaver, a Simi Valley resident. “It just about knocks you out.”

Weaver, 49, notices a similar, but reversed temperature change when he commutes from his job in Canoga Park to his home in Simi Valley, via the Santa Susana Pass. “About the time you hit the peak of the hill, there’s a wall of cool air that you pass into,” Weaver said. “It seems like it’s 10 degrees cooler in Simi Valley.”

Many residents who live in Bell Canyon, a 1,300-acre custom-home development tucked away in the Chatsworth hills, claim that a meandering creek and oak trees help keep temperatures lower.

“Compared to Van Nuys, it’s at least 10 degrees cooler here and maybe more,” said Liz Newman, who has lived in the area for two years. “The oaks are very large and hundreds of years old--they provide a lot of shade and moisture, so it’s a lot cooler here in summer.”

Terry MacAdam, who said she was the first person to build in Bell Canyon 20 years ago, said smog is less of a problem. “There’s more air movement,” MacAdam, 49, said. “The stifling feeling you get in the East Valley isn’t as significant.”

Bell Canyon residents who have built homes on the development’s granite ridge, sans oaks and streams, also claim to enjoy cooler conditions. “There’s always air circulating from any direction, which makes it cooler in summer by several degrees,” said Bud Toye, 49, who built his home in 1975. “We get breezes from the ocean and from the northeast.”

Several Valley real estate agents said homeowners have reported ocean breezes reaching hills in the West Valley. “I know people in the Sherman Oaks hills who say they don’t even need air conditioning because they claim they feel a breeze come across--and in Encino Hills also,” said Sonny Fox, an agent with the Jon Douglas Company of Los Angeles.

‘Heard That Before’

“I’ve heard that before,” said Lessard. “I don’t have any statistics to back it up. Maybe there’s some ocean air that filters through Simi Valley and flows down the freeway. It’s possible.”

“It’s a completely different climate,” said Emil Matzner, who has lived on the hillsides of Sherman Oaks for 21 years. “It’s unreal. I could dress warm to leave the house and when I get down to Ventura Boulevard, I have to take some layers off. And my flowers bloom later than down in the Valley because it’s cooler up here.”

Helen Lieberman, also with Jon Douglas, said she advises prospective home buyers who are concerned about roasting to shop south of Ventura Boulevard, in the hills of Tarzana, Encino or Woodland Hills.

The concrete-laden, billboard-studded stretches of Reseda and Van Nuys boulevards seem to be the places to avoid on 100-plus degree days.

“It’s a hot box,” said Preston Singer, president of Genie Air and Heating in Van Nuys. “It’s like a steam bath. But I’m surrounded by 5,000 air conditioners, so I don’t notice it much.”