San Diegans Swelter Under Record High

A heat wave isolated over Southern California sent temperatures soaring Sunday, with Lindbergh Field setting a record high and the mercury hitting 104 degrees in Santee.

But relief is on the way. A “dramatic” cooling trend is expected for today and Tuesday, with the high today not expected to go above 73 degrees, according to forecaster Wilbur Shigehara of the National Weather Service in San Diego.

The 87 degrees was the warmest May 6 in San Diego since 1872, when records were first kept. The previous high for the day was 85 in 1953. The soaring temperatures sent hundreds of thousands of people flocking to San Diego County beaches.

“It looks like spring break or the Fourth of July,” a lifeguard at Mission Bay said.

City beaches alone recorded crowds of 117,000, with lifeguard stations reporting 65 rescues.

“Springtime rip currents pull the hardest, and nine out of 10 rescues (Sunday) were people being pulled out of rip currents,” said Brant Bass, a lifeguard lieutenant with the city of San Diego.

The weekend’s scorching weather was caused by a dome of high pressure that hovered over a cloudless Southland most of Saturday and Sunday, Shigehara said. He pointed out that the high readings were not caused by Santa Ana winds, which are characterized by low humidity, usually 15% or less.

When Lindbergh Field’s record reading was reached at 11 a.m. Sunday, the humidity was an unseasonably high 41%, but by 2:45 p.m. it had reached 52%, creating what Shigehara called “Houston (Tex.)-like conditions.”

“The air mass within the high-pressure dome was sinking, and the sinking process created the heat,” he said.

Shigehara said today’s and Tuesday’s expected cooling front is heading south from Northern California, which enjoyed cool, sea-chilled temperatures throughout the weekend.

“We should have dramatic cooling begining today,” Shigehara said. “The high (today) should be around 73, and shouldn’t go above 68 on Tuesday. This high pressure, finally, is gone.”

Shigehara said high humidity reduced the danger of fire over the weekend but didn’t help avocados, citrus fruit and other crops damaged by the heat.

The county’s hottest readings on Sunday were recorded at Borrego Springs, 106; San Diego Wild Animal Park, 103; Fallbrook, 101; El Cajon, 100, and Brown Field on Otay Mesa, 98.

Los Angeles and Orange counties were no less affected by the heat. It was hot, hot, hot across the board: the mercury reached 97 degrees in downtown Los Angeles (the old record was 92, set in 1941). Saturday’s overnight low was 69, 9 degrees higher than the record set in 1957.

Other readings included 100 in Burbank and 103 in Ontario.

Sunday’s blistering temperatures capped a weekend of highly unusual weather for this time of year, according to meteorologists.

“It is the earliest anyone can remember that we’ve had this type of heat,” said Jerry Steiger, a forecaster with the National Weather Service. “It was just plain hot.”

One forecaster called it “superheat.”

Hundreds of thousands sought relief from the heat at Los Angeles County beaches, clogging freeways and creating virtual gridlock on local streets.

In Los Angeles County, an estimated 500,000 people lined the shores from Marina del Rey to Topanga Canyon by mid-afternoon. Lt. Dick Heineman of the county lifeguards said it topped Saturday’s crowd of 395,000.

“It’s wild,” said Toby Johnson, a parking lot attendant at Venice Beach, who said somebody offered him $40 to park in his lot--four times the usual fee. “It’s like mid-August. The lot was full by about 10 a.m.”

In Santa Monica, an estimated 25,000 people jammed onto the newly reopened pier for a festive--and sometimes chaotic--Cinco de Mayo party. The bash, which included live music, began at noon and was still going into the early evening. Police, however, reported no problems.

Elsewhere in the Southland, away from the sand and surf, there were plenty of people who went about their business and simply tried to cope as best they could.

In Boyle Heights, a man sold watermelons from the back of his truck. In Rosemead, a pair of Caltrans workers picked up trash on the side of the freeway, sweat dripping down their faces from beneath their fluorescent orange hard hats. In Covina, suit-and-tie-clad car salesmen spent the afternoon inside their air-conditioned showrooms, coming out only when the occasional customer requested a test drive.

And in Long Beach, more than 4,000 runners participated in the Long Beach Marathon, which began at 7 a.m. with temperatures already in the low 80s--about 20 degrees higher than those considered ideal for such a long race.

Spectators lined the streets and sidewalks of the city’s residential neighborhoods to cheer on the runners, many of whom beat the heat by stopping at “shower stations,” where competitors literally ran under shower nozzles that had been placed along the 26.2-mile course.

In downtown Los Angeles, thousands attended Cinco de Mayo festivities on Olvera Street, where lemonade and soft drinks were going as fast as the servers could pour them into cups.

Business was good for Maria Avalos, a sidewalk vendor who ran out of beverages much earlier than she expected.

“This heat, it’s too much,” she said. “They are gone. This morning, from 7 to 10, all the sodas go. We’re selling a lot of water now.”

Business was also good out in San Dimas, where 4,000 people spent the day soaking in the cool pools of the Raging Waters theme park. It was opening weekend, and park general manager Kent Lemastres said the weather could not have been better if he had ordered it himself.

“It’s a nice crowd,” he said, “and really busy for this time of year. Normally we don’t get busy until July.”

It was so hot over the weekend that on Saturday a 100-foot-tall pine tree toppled over onto a Pasadena apartment complex, leaving two residents homeless. Authorities said the heat caused moisture from the tree’s shallow-root system to travel up to the top of the pine, making it top-heavy.

Times staff writers Steven R. Churm, Stephanie Chavez and Julie Cart contributed to this story.