Whew! O.C. Gets a Welcome Break From Record Heat

Orange County on Thursday enjoyed a break from the searing heat wave that had scorched the region for two days and now can look forward to a weekend of normal summer weather.

Throughout the county temperatures fell dramatically. Anaheim recorded 90 degrees compared to 104 Wednesday, San Juan Capistrano was a cool 81 degrees compared to 104 the day before, and Newport Beach reached 72 degrees, down from 82. Still, not every city got a break. Santa Ana reached 100 degrees, tying a record high from 1907.

“It won’t heat back up again,” promised meteorologist Steve Burback of WeatherData, Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times. “I expect the cooling temperatures will persist, and it will be in the 80s, in the 70s along the coast, because the marine layer has pushed inland a little bit, bringing the cooler air.”

Today’s highs will be in the upper 60s to low 70s on the beaches, and the upper 80s to low 90s inland. Slightly lower temperatures are expected Saturday and Sunday.

Throughout Southern California, people welcomed the break in the heat.

At Fox Service Center, a car repair shop in Fullerton, site of the hottest county temperatures in the last two days, the water cooler was filled with Gatorade Wednesday to encourage the eight mechanics to keep drinking liquids.

“It’s a lot nicer (Thursday), or maybe we’re just getting used to it,” said manager Bill Dudley. “We’ve been real busy, and everyone is real short-tempered. But we’re making it.”

In Santa Monica, the break in temperatures didn’t seem to lessen the stream of customers at Sears, Roebuck & Co., looking for air conditioners and fans.

“We’ve sold $30,000 worth,” saleswoman Gina Triplicata said. “It’s great. Everyone’s on commission. We get 3%.”

But business had not recouped for some.

Traders at the downtown Los Angeles Flower Market reported depressed sales earlier in the week because their wholesale customers were afraid to transport heat-sensitive flowers in their trucks.

And things didn’t improve Thursday, when public customers are welcome, said Diana Carrillo, a receptionist at the San Lorenzo Nursery.

“On a normal Thursday we do quite a bit of public business,” she said, “but due to the heat, once again our business was slow.”

The heat is still bad enough to cause injury. A 2-year-old girl suffered second-degree burns Thursday when she slid down a sizzling playground slide at a nearby McDonald’s Restaurant, a spokeswoman at UCI Medical Center in Orange said. She was treated and released.

In Los Angeles County, the death toll from the record-breaking temperatures reached four, the county coroner reported, after two men, one 57 and one 59, died at Midway Hospital in Los Angeles on Wednesday of heat-related illnesses. They were not identified.

The Orange County coroner’s office reported no deaths due to the heat, a spokesman said.

And power consumption, which had reached all-time record levels on Tuesday and Wednesday, fell back as well, utility officials said.

The Southern California Edison Co. said its 4 million customers had used 15,986 megawatts by 3 p.m. Thursday, well below its record usage of 17,647 megawatts Wednesday. Similarly, the Department of Water and Power’s 1.3 million customers used 4,964 megawatts, compared to a demand of 5,137 megawatts the previous day.