Air-Conditioning Companies Feel the Heat as Year’s 1st Hot Spell Hits : Weather: The county marks its first triple-digit temperatures of the year, and Ojai has a power failure.

The high in Ojai was 81 on Monday, almost a cold snap from the 100-plus readings over the weekend.

But air-conditioning companies were just warming up for the rush of business caused by Ventura County’s first hot spell of the year.

“We’re swamped with calls,” said Barbara Kaderly, office manager for Temp-Co air systems. “We get a hot spell, and then it really takes off.”

She said her company had 17 service orders, from customers in Ojai, Santa Paula, Camarillo, Fillmore and Ventura. Other companies were just as busy.

“It’s great for business,” said Pat Grove, office manager for Air Conditioning Co. Inc. “The phone’s been ringing off the hook since we came in at 7.”

He said the company, based in Glendale, had 200 orders for service by 2 p.m. Monday, including about 40 from Ventura County, all commercial users.

“Usually it’s lack of maintenance,” Grove said. “The coils get dirty and don’t dissipate heat like they should. Or the system limped along last year and the first hot spell, it blows.”

The weekend heat wave marked the first time this year that temperatures in the triple digits were recorded in Ventura County. The National Weather Service’s official high Saturday in Ojai was 100, recorded at the county Fire Department’s Station 21. The thermometer at the HomeFed Bank on Maricopa Highway recorded 105.

Similar highs were noted during the weekend in Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley and other inland areas, but in Ventura and Oxnard and elsewhere along the coast, it was just a bit warmer than usual. On Saturday and Sunday, for example, the high in Ventura was 79, more than 20 degrees cooler than Ojai, even though the towns are only 12 miles apart.

Meteorologists and other officials say such big differences are normal in Ventura County, where desert winds collide with onshore breezes and the protective marine cloud layer bumps into the mountains. On March 20, for example, the high was 90 in Ojai but reached only the upper 60s along the Ventura County coast.

“When you’re inland, without that marine layer as a filter, you get more direct sun and hotter temperatures,” said Bill Wright, land-fire officer for the Ventura County Fire Department. Mountains block the marine layer and humid air off the ocean. That’s why it’s usually warmer in Camarillo than in nearby Oxnard, Wright said.

“The farther you get away from the coastal influence, the higher the probability of brush fires,” Wright said, but the county reported no brush fires over the weekend.

Another hot-weather phenomenon--the power outage--did occur in the Ojai area, where 1,793 customers lost power for more than an hour Sunday evening when overhead equipment failed. But Southern California Edison spokesman Mike Montoya said investigators do not believe that the heat was responsible.

He noted that the hottest days were Saturday and Sunday, when most factories and businesses were closed, so the system was not burdened by the surge in air conditioning.

Today’s forecast calls for a high of about 75 in Ojai and inland areas and 70 in Ventura and along the coast. But Robert Laszlo, owner of California Air Conditioning in Ojai, will still be feeling the heat wave’s glow.

“I’m booked solid through Thursday,” Laszlo said.