Hot Spell to Persist : Anaheim’s 93 Nearly Equals County Record

A blanket of hot and humid weather brought near-record temperatures Monday in many Orange County cities, and forecasters expect it to linger for almost two weeks.

Anaheim topped the list when the thermometer reached 93 degrees at 4:30 p.m. Temperatures in Irvine, Tustin and El Toro reached 91 degrees, with Fullerton following at 90, said Mark Bogner, a meteorologist with WeatherData, which forecasts for The Times.

The record temperature for the date in the county was recorded in 1882, when the thermometer reached 94 degrees, according to Jim Sleeper’s Orange County Almanac.

The heat is expected to last throughout this week and into next because of a high pressure ridge building across the United States, Bogner said.

“It’s going to be hot for a while,” Bogner said. “Real summer weather.” The only hitch, he said, might be a storm coming from Alaska, which could bring a cooling trend. But “it looks like a weak storm,” Bogner said.

The beach areas were cooler Monday with temperatures mostly in the mid-80s. Laguna Beach reached 88 degrees and Newport Beach saw a high of only 78.

At Huntington Beach, crowds estimated at more than 65,000 hit the 70-degree water, an unusually large number for a Monday, Lt. Mike Beuerlein said.

Lifeguards rescued 40 people in Huntington Beach and another 100 people in Newport Beach. But that was still better than the weekend, Beuerlein said, when more than 200 people attempting to escape the heat had to be pulled from the water in Huntington Beach alone.

Despite the heat, the Orange County Fire Department said it did not need to issue a fire alert, because of the accompanying humidity.

“The humidity serves as a wet blanket and prevents fires from spreading easily,” said Kathleen Cha, Fire Department spokeswoman.

The other good news Monday was that Sunday’s health advisory from the Air Quality Management District was lifted.

“Because of the low inversion layer it mixes with the heat and causes irritation, but for the next few days conditions will be good to moderate in most of the Orange County cities,” AQMD official Claudia Keith said.