Heat and Smog Join Forces for 9th Day in Row

Southern California suffered Wednesday under the ninth day of a merciless plague of heat and smog that has obliterated skylines, sent a few disgruntled tourists packing for home and left some residents literally gasping for clean air.

However, Orange County escaped the worst of the heat and smog that has smothered downtown Los Angeles. Air quality was generally good Wednesday except in La Habra and El Toro, where it was deemed “moderate,” said Claudia Keith, spokeswoman for the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

“We thought we were going to have worse air than we did,” Keith said.

Nevertheless, the forecast is for unhealthful air in much of the county today, including La Habra, Anaheim, Los Alamitos and Costa Mesa, Keith said.

However, cooler temperatures and smog-busting breezes are expected beginning Friday, bringing with them a cooler, clearer weekend, meteorologists said.

“We’re probably seeing the forerunner of a cleansing, cleaning trend,” Keith said.

Temperatures in Orange County were only slightly cooler than on Tuesday. The mercury hit 97 degrees in Anaheim, 92 in Santa Ana, 91 in Irvine and 90 in El Toro. Beach cities were more pleasant, with highs of 81 in Dana Point, 88 in San Juan Capistrano and only 73 in Newport Beach.

“(Today) will be just as bad, but Friday things will improve and will continue to improve through the weekend,” said Marty McKewon, a meteorologist with WeatherData Inc.

Los Angeles residents were not so lucky. Downtown visibility has been limited to a few miles, with the San Gabriel Mountains lost in a sea of brown haze.

Conditions did improve slightly Wednesday. No first-stage alerts were called, but the air was declared “unhealthful” in 12 of the 34 air-monitoring areas of the South Coast Air Quality Management District, including normally clear West Los Angeles, officials said.

The Los Angeles Civic Center posted a high of 94, the ninth consecutive day of 90-degree-plus weather. Inland valleys fared even worse, with highs reaching 105 in Riverside and Ontario.

Throughout the region, playground games have been canceled and pedestrians have protected themselves from the unrelenting sun and contaminated air with parasols and wet handkerchiefs. Those who could avoided the smog by staying indoors.

Jim Lewis was not so lucky. His work as a garbage truck driver took him to what was arguably the most unpleasant place to be on a hot, smoggy day--high atop 500 feet of trash at the Sunshine Canyon Landfill north of Sylmar.

As a light wind kicked up a cloud of dust amid the sea of disposable diapers and plastic trash bags, Lewis watched bulldozers cover his load of garbage with a layer of dirt.

“They keep the trash covered up pretty good, so you don’t have too much stench,” said Lewis, 56. “It’s the smog and the fumes from all these trucks that bother me. . . . The heat isn’t that bad. It’s nothing like what the fellas are suffering in Saudi Arabia.”

What’s causing the hellish weather?

Joe Cassmassi, a weather forecaster with the AQMD, described the conditions in the atmosphere above Southern California as “worst-case meteorology.”

Normally, temperatures near the 100-degree mark break up the inversion layer that holds pollutants close to the ground, he said. But this week, a high-pressure system centered over San Diego has kept the inversion layer intact, leading to the unusual combination of smog and near-100-degree heat.

Even the usually pleasant beach communities have been affected by the smog siege, Cassmassi said.

“You have to get out of L.A. pretty much, and even out of Orange County, to get away from the smog,” he said.

For out-of-towners visiting Southern California, Wednesday’s dirty air and heat seemed a far cry from the pleasant, post-card vistas they had seen in the travel agent’s office back home.

Karen Steven, a 21-year-old tourist from Scotland, sat in the shade of a kiosk at the main entrance to the Huntington Library in San Marino, resting after a midday walk that unexpectedly became a desertlike trek.

“It’s almost unbearable,” she said. “I expected brilliant sunshine and clear skies. It’s been kind of a surprise.”

Joe Prigatamo, a volunteer who collects donations for the library, offered the weary tourist a glass of water.

It was not the first time Prigatamo had rescued a pedestrian from the heat wave. Earlier in the day, a Swiss woman and her child approached Prigatamo’s kiosk.

“I told her, ‘You walked all the way from Switzerland in this heat? That’s crazy,’ ” Prigatamo said, laughing. “But seriously,” he added, “another person walked from the Norton Simon Museum (in Pasadena). Now that’s a long way.”

In some San Gabriel Valley communities, intermittent first-stage smog alerts during the first week of school forced officials to limit playground activities. And even when the smog was not that bad, children seemed to be less enthusiastic about learning new yard games, observers said.

Most Angelenos know that coping with the smog means adapting one’s activities to the ebb and flow of the nitrogen oxide in the atmosphere.

Gardening, jogging or any other outdoor activity should be reserved for the hours of the early evening, when the smog dissipates and the hint of a marine breeze appears in even the most remote inland valleys.

Those forced to work outdoors have developed survival strategies.

Postal Service letter carrier Lester Santiago, 55, followed his usual routine Wednesday to keep from passing out from heatstroke on his Pasadena route.

“Just before I leave for work in the morning I have 1 1/2 glasses of apple juice and a glass of water,” Santiago said. “I have another glass of water at the office just before I start my route. . . . By the end of the day, I’ve had about six glasses of water.”

The heat wave is expected to end this weekend, forecasters say, as the high-pressure system over San Diego moves eastward.

“It’ll be slowly cooling down each day from here on out,” said McKewon. “There’s a sign that it’s ending.”

Temperatures should dip below the 90s by Friday, McKewon said.

Times staff writer Sonni Efron contributed to this report.