L.A. Swelters, but 99 Isn’t a Record : Weather: However, the temperature downtown does tie the figure for the day set in 1956. Students are affected and a few brush fires erupt.

As if the torrid heat weren’t enough, Southern Californians were deprived on Wednesday of even the satisfaction of knowing they were sweating through a record-breaker.

Wednesday’s high in downtown Los Angeles was a mere 99 degrees, tying a previous record for that day set in 1956. Though the heat tempted fate with a few city brush fires, it did little more than prove once again that summer in Southern California doesn’t end when kindergarten teachers pin colored leaves up on their bulletin boards.

“We’re into snow cones here,” said one secretary at Bell City Hall, where the temperature was also 99. “Just what you want for fall.”

It was hotter than Bell in Anaheim (100 degrees), in San Gabriel (102), and in Riverside (104). Palm Springs was the nation’s hot spot, with 113.

Among the most affected by the sweltering temperatures were students.

In Simi Valley, just as the mercury was heading for 104 degrees, air conditioners went on the fritz at Simi Valley High School, sending many students to huddle in an air-conditioned gym. Officials in the Santa Ana School District said 10 schools would close early today because of the heat and smog, and Fullerton estimated 15 would close early there.

A spokesman for the Los Angeles Unified School District said he believes a number of schools here may close early today as well. Under district rules, principals may call for shortened school days if temperatures are predicted to exceed 95 degrees.

“Maybe it’s because we’re too close to the sun,” speculated 5-year-old Tommy Rogins with a shrug in Borchard Community Park in Newbury Park.

At Sequoyah School in Pasadena, administrators had to alter the normal discipline routine because of the heat.

“The usual punishment for getting in trouble is sitting in the principal’s office,” said Olive DePonte, maintenance coordinator. “But the principal’s office is air-conditioned because of the computers, so that would have been a privilege today.”

Los Angeles’ average high temperature in October over the last 30 years has been 79 degrees, one degree hotter than June, when astronomers say summer is supposed to start. Moreover, meteorologists say, recent Octobers have been hotter than some of their predecessors.

The average high for last October was 84 degrees--5 degrees above the 79 degrees that is the statistical average for the month during the last 30 years, according to Pat Roe, spokesman for the U.S. Weather Service. The hottest-ever October days were Oct. 3 and 4 in 1987, when the temperature reached 104 degrees.

“The seasons are just a date on the calendar--something based on the angle of the sun and when it crosses the Equator,” said Marty McKewon, senior meteorologist at WeatherData Inc., which provides forecasting services for The Times. “Basically, Los Angeles doesn’t have a true summer.”

Temperatures are expected to cool slightly over the next several days, but will remain higher than normal--most likely in the 80s--at least through next week, meteorologists said.

They said both the cool temperatures this summer and the warm temperatures of the past week can be attributed to a high-pressure ridge that showed little interest in remaining over the Rocky Mountain states where it typically hovers.

Instead, the high-pressure moved eastward during the summer, allowing Los Angeles to remain cool. Now, meteorologists say, the ridge has moved farther west, stopping at the western Nevada border. The result is soaring temperatures.

The heat had firefighters out in force Wednesday.

At least four brush fires broke out across Los Angeles County, although structural damage was limited to one luxury home in the Chevy Chase Canyon area of Glendale. Twenty-five engine companies responded to the three-alarm blaze, which virtually destroyed the two-story house in the 2700 block of Kennington Drive and continued eastward up the hillside, charring about 10 acres.

More than 25 people were evacuated, but no other homes were immediately threatened and no injuries were reported.

Glendale firefighters credited a mutual agreement with other municipal fire departments for keeping the blaze under control. Had it not been for prompt aid from engine companies from Burbank, Pasadena and Los Angeles County, the flames “would have gone right through the canyon all the way to Pasadena,” Glendale Battalion Chief Chris Gray said.

Flames lapped at the deck of another hillside home near Laurel Canyon in Los Angeles, but a contractor building an addition to the structure used a garden hose to fend off the fire, and firefighters extinguished the blaze before any homes were damaged.

Another brush fire erupted in Griffith Park near Traveltown, home to a collection of antique trains. About 30 acres were blackened and traffic on the adjacent Ventura Freeway was snarled before firefighters armed with water-dropping helicopters knocked the flames down.

A small fire was also burning by the San Gabriel River and Pomona freeways, near the City of Industry, but no damage was reported.

Downtown, where bank signs showed temperatures higher than the official 99 degrees, residents began dreaming of the pause that refreshes.

“The water’s hot by now,” said one mail carrier, taking a swig from a gallon jug at midday. “But today I’m drinking a gallon and a half. Last October, I got heat exhaustion. The first week in October is always hot.”

A block away, at the Grand Central Market, vendors were pouring out glass after glass of the rice-based horchata and jamaica, a red, flower-based drink, to Latino immigrants. Meanwhile, shopkeeper Jenny Chao, who was trying with little success to sell chile peppers, was dreaming of suamea, a tamarind-flavored drink from her native Taiwan.

Back home in Korea, said another shopkeeper, Bob Jo, when Pusan grew steamy, he would partake of kong-kuk, a chilled soy-based concoction.

Lee Charles, 56, a homeless man from Louisiana who said he has been sleeping on the street for 22 years, has another theory when trying to keep cool.

“Hot coffee,” he said. “If you drink something hot, it cools you down by comparison.”

In any case, Southern Californians don’t understand heat, he said.

“There’s a difference,” he said. “In east Louisiana, you sweat in the shade. Here, you don’t sweat unless you set in the sun a piece.”

“We sold 80 tons of ice today instead of our normal 38,” said Bob Benedetto, general manager of the North Hollywood Ice Co. “Motion picture caterers are taking a lot of it. The actors on location are drinking a little extra Gatorade.”

David Moreno, 39, a Metro Rail worker, said he kept cool by working 40 feet underground.

“After that,” he said, “it’s Miller Time.”

Staff writers Henry Chu, Jesse Katz, Amy Louise Kazmin, Thuan Le and Psyche Pascual contributed to this report.