Hordes Hot-Foot It to the Beach : Weather: It’s cooler on packed shores, but even ocean is warm. It still beats inland areas, suffering record-high temperatures.

A second day of record-breaking temperatures and high humidity sent thousands of sweltering Orange County residents to the slightly cooler ocean Friday for an early start on what is likely to be a big beach weekend.

Triple-digit temperatures were recorded in Anaheim, 102; Santa Ana, 100; El Toro, 101, and Fullerton, 100. Santa Ana’s previous record for the date was 98, set in 1991.

At the coast, cooler temperatures in the air nearly matched that of the water. From Huntington Beach to the San Clemente Pier, the air temperature hovered around 78 degrees, while in Laguna Beach the temperatures nosed into the mid-80s.

Even the surf temperature Friday was an unseasonably high 72 to 73 degrees. Waves of two to four feet are forecast for today.

In fact, the warmer ocean temperature is directly related to the heat wave, according to Curtis Brack, a meteorologist with WeatherData, which provides forecasts for The Times.

“Basically there’s no marine layer. That’s why things are so toasty,” he said. “The warm waters are not allowing a sufficient marine layer to build to keep things cool. “

In Laguna Beach, about 30,000 people went to the shore, up from a typical Friday summer crowd of 20,000, according to lifeguard Lt. Mark Klosterman.

“A lot of people are just down to cool off,” Klosterman said, “and most found their way to the water. It’s what we call a palm-tree, Popsicle day: so pleasant you want to sit beneath a palm tree with a Popsicle.”

“How is it here?” said Newport Beach lifeguard Lt. Eric Bauer. “Hot today, hot tomorrow and hot the next day. It’s just plain hot!”

The Newport Beach was extremely crowded for a weekday, Bauer said: about 85,000, compared to the usual 40,000 to 60,000.

“Because of the high temperatures and humidity, everyone is playing hooky and ditching work and all that stuff to come here.”

“It’s muggy and it’s hot,” said Seal Beach Lt. Steve Cushman, looking forward to the increased crowds drawn by the heat and the Miller Lite Pro Beach Volleyball tournament, which began Friday and runs through Sunday.

“People are behaving themselves,” Cushman said. “I think it’s so hot, people don’t want to move around so much, and if they do, it’s for the water.”

Brack, the meteorologist, said there is little relief in sight for Orange County over the weekend. He predicted partly cloudy and muggy weather with a slight chance of thundershowers, mostly in the afternoon and evening.

“It will probably remain fairly humid because of all the tropical moisture from Hurricane Ileana,” now near the southern tip of Baja, Brack said.

The highs today are expected to range from the mid-70s at the beaches to the 100s inland. The lows should range from the mid-60s to the lower 70s.

“We’re having some unusually warm low temperatures,” Brack noted.

Los Angeles also had a record high temperature of 104 degrees Friday, while warm tropical air caused heavy thunderstorms, lightning, brush fires and a rare tornado warning in rugged portions of Riverside County, forecasters said.

Lightning touched off a 480-acre fire in the sparsely populated Cactus Valley area near Hemet, at one point threatening about a dozen homes and a camp attended by about 150 children, said Bonnie O’Connell, a spokeswoman for the Riverside County Fire Department. No injuries were reported.

By midafternoon, those homes were no longer threatened, O’Connell said. A second fire, about a mile away, consumed about an acre, and a smaller fire believed caused by downed power lines destroyed a mobile home in the back yard of a house in southeast Hemet, O’Connell said.

“We’ve got a lot of fires going on . . . small fires caused by the downed lines and lightning strikes,” she said.

Heavy rains and isolated flooding damaged several houses and cars.

A funnel cloud was reported at one point, though apparently it did not touch down, the National Weather Service said. A tornado warning was in effect through 4 p.m.

Other high temperatures included 104 in Los Angeles, 110 in Monrovia, 109 in San Gabriel, 107 in Woodland Hills and Van Nuys, 106 in Burbank, 105 in Montebello, 104 in Pasadena and 100 in Long Beach.

Baruffaldi attributed the continuing heat to a high pressure system to the east, which is blocking normal air flows and allowing warm air to move up from the south and southwest.

“It’s preventing the usual cooler air from . . . coming off the ocean,” he said. “Instead, we’re having tropical air . . . which is warm to begin with. Since we’re staying warm overnight, it doesn’t take long for us to heat up and reach these record highs.”

Thunderstorms were expected to continue for several days in mountainous inland areas, although there was no threat of tornadoes, he said.

Times staff writer David Ferrell contributed to his report.