S.D. Wilts on a Sizzling Cinco de Mayo

The high temperature at Lindbergh Field was 81 degrees on Saturday, far below the record 96 set in 1953, but elsewhere in San Diego County, Cinco de Mayo sizzled.

Santee reported a wilting 105 at 2 p.m., and Camp Pendleton reported a high of 102. Other highs reported on Saturday included 87 in Vista, 94 in Escondido and 93 in Alpine.

Downtown San Diego and parts of the coast escaped the heat wave because they “probably had a little bit stronger breeze today,” said a spokesman for the National Weather Service in San Diego.

It was also unseasonably hot elsewhere in Southern California. Los Angeles reported in at 101 degrees, which easily broke a previous record high of 93 degrees for the day in 1953.

But an absence of off-shore breezes and a high-pressure system that hung immobile over much of California throughout the day also helped temperatures rise to 104 in Monrovia, 102 in Woodland Hills, Long Beach, Montebello and Riverside, and 101 in Pasadena and San Bernardino.

Coastal freeways and roads turned into blocked arteries, clogged with carloads of sunstruck beach-goers.

San Diego City lifeguards performed 28 rescues, an unusually high number for a Saturday early in May. An estimated 95,000 San Diegans sought cooler temperatures at city beaches, while thousands more gathered at Embarcadero Park for an evening fireworks display celebrating Cinco de Mayo.

San Diegans can look for more of the same hot weather this morning and afternoon. The forecast calls for highs of between 76 and 84 along the coast, 92 to 100 inland, 70 to 78 in the mountains and 97 to 105 in the desert. The high pressure system causing the heat wave is expected to move back into the desert tonight and bring cooler temperatures on Monday.

Los Angeles County lifeguards said crowds ranged from 100,000 at Long Beach and Hermosa Beach to 90,000 at Zuma. In Orange County, estimates ranged from almost 90,000 visitors in Newport Beach to 5,000 in Laguna Beach.

In Santa Monica, where an estimated 150,000 shoreline visitors lounged on the sand, even the lifeguards were not immune to traffic woes.

“Our guys have been up to 30 minutes late just trying to find places to park,” said lifeguard Dan Atkins, 34.

Atkins said the peaceful crowds and mild upper-70s temperatures provided for a “perfect beach day”--marred only by a few minor encounters between lifeguards and rowdy visitors over excessive beer drinking.

“So far we haven’t had to arrest anybody,” Atkins said. “Our concern is that they’ll go into the water drunk.”

Campers took to the roads leading north to mountain resorts. At Crystal Lake in the Angeles National Forest, where cars and four-wheel-drive vehicles equipped with tents filed in all day long, park naturalist Sharon Seales said the heat had provided “the biggest warm weather draw of the year.”

San Diego’s mountain communities also reported delightful weather: It was sunny and 75 at Mount Laguna, 78 at Cuyamaca Park.

At the Mariachi Festival in downtown Santa Ana, Louise Diaz, wearing a full-length, long-sleeved ruffled dress, tried to find relief by eating a Popsicle while she waited to take the stage with the Folklorico La Fonda dance troupe.

“It’s hot!” she said, belaboring the obvious.

Los Angeles County fire officials declared a “red flag warning”--one stage below the red flag “alerts” issued when fire danger is most extreme.

“It’s kind of rare for this time of year” to issue the warning, Fire Capt. Jim Jordan said.

Weather forecasters said the 100-degree temperatures were not expected to return today to the Los Angeles area. Steve Burback, a meteorologist with WeatherData Inc., which supplies forecasts to The Times, said the high-pressure system that spanned from San Francisco to Nevada’s Great Basin would move eastward, leaving a few clouds and highs in the upper 80s and low 90s today.

Times staff writers Phillip Gollner in Chatsworth and Dan Weikel in Costa Mesa contributed to this story.