Sweltering Residents Seek Relief : Hot: As temperatures soared above 100 at many spots in county, thousands headed for beaches or movie theaters to escape the heat.

It was not a day to be a short-order cook. Or a bald man without sun block.

It also was no time to lay hot tar on your driveway. Or have your car break down in blistering Borego Springs.

There were, however, lots of opportunities for unscrupulous air-conditioning salesmen.

Temperatures broke the 100-degree barrier throughout the county Sunday, sending sweaty San Diegans to seek relief any way they could--from treks to the beach or to the upstairs bathtub and to packed movie theaters from Oceanside to San Ysidro.

As usual, Borego Springs was the hottest spot in the county with an afternoon high of 114 degrees. But on this sweltering Sunday, several other inland cities gave it their best shot to match that dubious mark as the thermometer hit 105 in Santee, 101 in Alpine, Poway and Escondido, and 100 in El Cajon.

But weather forecasters say that despite the hot and sweaty discomfort, things could have been worse. The humidity hovered around 35% throughout much of the county Sunday, allowing those people out in the sun a little respite from its fierce heat.

“Actually, 35% humidity isn’t bad at all,” said Frank O’Leary, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in San Diego. “That low humidity at least made the day bearable. It allowed the perspiration on the body to evaporate and cool you down. The really bad days are when body sweat doesn’t evaporate, when it clings to you.”

Still, for many weekend warriors, such talk of low humidity was small consolation. For them, San Diego County felt like it had been sliced up like a piece of wedding cake and plopped down in the middle of Arizona.

It was a day when the sweat stung in your eyes like a shot from a Mace can, where a bare-footed dash across a Tarmac parking lot was like walking over burning coals on the floor of Death Valley. Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch.

It was a day when San Diegans collectively wished they were that guy taking the backward plunge into the luscious waters of a swimming pool in that old ice tea commercial. It was even hot at the county morgue, a place that’s usually cool.

“It’s even hot in this building, I’ve been running around so much,” said county medical examiner investigator Bill Leard. “And it’s even hotter outside.”

On Sunday, the streets of many downtowns were empty. Police reported little activity, especially crime activity. Because just like any too-hip operator on the street can tell you, being hot is not cool.

“It’s so slow,” said San Diego police Sgt. Steve McMillan. “It’s so hot, nobody wants to do anything today. Not even commit crimes.”

Instead, people went to the beach. More than 166,000 flocked to San Diego city beaches, authorities estimate, a figure that’s higher than usual. “The strange thing is that the water is a lot warmer now and so there’s as many people in the surf as on the beach,” said lifeguard Derrick Miranda.

“And that means that our water rescues are up. Sunday, we rescued 172 people, and 480 for the weekend. So, it’s definitely ‘Bay Watch’ out there.”

At the Miramar Naval Air station, where those magnificent men in their flying machines staged their annual air show, Sunday’s 152,000 attendance was only half of a year ago, a fact organizers partially attribute to the heat.

“Last year, we were riding the crest of Desert Storm,” said Doug Sayers, a public affairs officer for the Miramar Nava Air Station. “But the weather also played a factor.”

So, if people didn’t go see the Top Guns, where did they go?

To the movies, say local theater owners.

Local theaters were filled to capacity Sunday as residents sought refuge from the heat outside.

“Even the bad movies were packed,” said one Hillcrest resident who decided that the sultry Sunday was as good a day as any to see Clint Eastwood’s new movie “Unforgiven.”

“I had to sit in the fifth row, the theater was so packed. I had to move my head a lot. It was like sitting in a tennis match.”

And if some San Diegans couldn’t find an air-conditioned movie theater, they went to buy their own air-conditioner.

“They picked us clean today,” said Mike Lynch, who sells air conditioners at the Sears store at El Camino Real mall in Carlsbad. “The fans were all gone by Thursday and the air conditioners went out the door Saturday. All we had left today were used jobs and floor models.

“Let me tell you, if some unscrupulous salesman wanted to sell junk air-conditioners for a million bucks, there would be people there to buy them.”

Weather forecasters say that the next few days will bring more reduced humidity and slightly cooler temperatures along the coast.

But Southern California’s Inland Empire will stay hotter than blue blazes. Just ask Carl Wirtz.

The La Mesa police lieutenant said the road was so hot that it blew out his tire Sunday near Barstow. “It was so hot that I put my knee to the pavement and got burned,” he said. “I could barely touch the lug iron to take the lug nuts off.

“It was so hot out there changing that tire,” Wirtz said, “that I opened my cooler and dropped an egg onto the road. And you know what? It started to fry right there on the freeway.”