Unseasonable Hot Spell Wilts Holiday Spirits

At Pumpkin City’s Christmas Tree lot in Santa Ana on Thursday, the sun had apparently sapped much of the holiday mood, not to mention sales.

“I think people just aren’t in the Christmas spirit when it’s 80 degrees outside,” said Harold Derentz, a salesman at the lot. “We do more business from 6 o’clock (p.m) to 9 o’clock (p.m.) than we do all day when it’s warm.”

Thursday’s unseasonably hot weather wilted sales, said Derentz with a frown. “By about 20%.”

Much of Orange County experienced temperatures in the 80s on Thursday. San Juan Capistrano recorded the highest temperature in the nation Thursday at 88 degrees, with Santa Ana close behind at 86, according to weather officials. Newport Beach recorded a high of 78 degrees while Anaheim recorded an 83, and El Toro logged an 81.

Steve Burback, a meteorologist with WeatherData, which provides forecasts to The Times, said Derentz can expect sales to slump again today. “The highs may even be a couple of degrees warmer in places.”

The weekend may bring some relief.

“It’ll be less intense and the winds will be light,” Burback explained. “It will still be dry, but we’re expecting a gradual cooling off on Saturday and Sunday. There won’t be any real change until Tuesday, when it may be 10 degrees cooler.”

And that, said Burback, will depend entirely on a cold front now off Vancouver Island in the Gulf of Alaska.

“It doesn’t look like that front is going to reach Southern California,” said Burback. “But you can always hope.”

It is unusual but not unheard of for San Juan Capistrano to post the nation’s high. It has already happened once or twice this year.

Meteorologists have long attributed San Juan Capistrano’s propensity for blistering temperatures to a precise and unusual mixture of several different factors. Chief among them is the city’s proximity to the mountains that run through Camp Pendleton and on up through the eastern edge of Orange County.