Mercury Climbs Into the Low 80s : Weather: Slightly cooler but still-sunny conditions will linger. Record-breaking 87-degree reading is logged in downtown Los Angeles.

Unusually warm temperatures, including a record-setting mark in downtown Los Angeles, sent many to the beaches Wednesday and made it seem like summer had arrived early.

“Usually, January through March is the rainy season in Southern California,” said Curtis Brack, a meteorologist for WeatherData, which provides forecasts for The Times. “But of the larger storms that usually come through, very few have developed.”

While temperatures may cool a bit in the next few days, forecasts call for more sunny and dry weather, Brack said.

Locally, temperatures reached 78 degrees in Santa Ana, 83 in Fullerton and 82 in Lake Forest. The same-day record for Orange County is 87 degrees, set 16 years ago in Santa Ana, according to WeatherData. The normal temperature for this time of year is about 69 degrees.

In downtown Los Angeles, the mercury hit 87 degrees, breaking the 86-degrees record set on the same date in 1910, the National Weather Service reported.

Nowhere was evidence of the heat greater than at local beaches, where bigger than usual crowds were reported, including 16,000 people in Newport Beach and about 15,000 at Huntington Beach.

Said Newport Beach Marine Safety Lt. John Blauer: “It was enough to make us think summer is almost here.”