Record Heat, Beach Crowds? Must Be Winter : Weather: Santa Ana again ties for hottest in nation at 95 degrees. About 100,000 take to the sand at Newport Beach on a gloriously unseasonal Presidents Day.

For the second day in a row, Santa Ana tied for the hottest spot in the nation Monday and set an all-time record for February, as the mercury climbed to 95 degrees.

Sweltering heat throughout Orange County, about 20 degrees above normal for this winter month, set air conditioning units buzzing and prompted people enjoying a day away from school and work to head to the beaches to celebrate Presidents Day.

“It looked more like the Fourth of July,” said Blair Cannon, a marine safety officer at Newport Beach, where he estimated 100,000 people showed up Monday to sunbathe and cool off by splashing in the 61-degree surf.

For the second consecutive day, Santa Ana and Monrovia shared the distinction of having the highest temperature in the country.

Moreover, Santa Ana outstripped by two degrees its all-time February high of 93 degrees, reached Sunday.

Santa Ana’s previous record high temperature for the month was 92 degrees, set Feb. 23, 1954, said Curtis Brack, a meteorologist at WeatherData, which provides forecasts for The Times.

The entire Southland sweltered Monday. It was 94 degrees at the Los Angeles Civic Center, seven notches above the previous record of 87 set on Feb. 20, 1982.

By contrast, the coolest spot was Coronado, with a high of 70 degrees.

Extra lifeguards had to be hired at Newport Beach to handle the summer-like Presidents Day beach crowd, Cannon said. He said three swimmers had to be rescued when they were caught in small riptides.

With the beach crowds came the beach traffic, Cannon said, noting that throughout the day lines of cars were backed up on the Newport Peninsula and parking was sparse.

“It was perfect weather,” said Brian Covert, a lifeguard supervisor at San Clemente State Beach, where he said the air temperature reached a high of 76 under clear skies. “Everybody got toasted,” he said.

The balmy weather--air temperatures in the mid-80s and water temperatures of about 60 degrees--drew an estimated half a million people to Los Angeles County beaches Monday, where lifeguards warned of riptides and had rescued 65 by late afternoon.

“It looks like summer,” said Malibu lifeguard Lt. Steve Wood as he surveyed the crowd of up to 100,000 beach-goers at Zuma Beach.

Boating and whale-watching enthusiasts also turned out in force.

Paul Hansen, a deck hand at Davey’s Locker in Newport Beach, said that operation’s commercial whale-watching boats alone took 450 people aboard Monday. “It was a very, very busy weekend,” he said.

Still, some Southland beach-goers could see snow-capped mountains in their rearview mirrors. And, in fact, the holiday weekend was a solid one for local ski resorts.

Even though the mountains were competing with the first good beach weekend of the year, Snow Summit Mountain Resort in Big Bear sold out on Saturday and Sunday, with 6,800 skiers schussing each day. Monday drew a respectable 5,000, as temperatures hit 60 degrees and the long weekend came to an end.

“There were a few eye-catching outfits” on the slopes, said Bonnie Tregaskis, Snow Summit spokeswoman. “We’ve started seeing lots of shorts and a few tank tops. . . . You don’t see hats; people’s hair is flying. I haven’t seen any bathing suits yet. Probably because people are still too white.”

Temperatures are expected to drop quickly to the normal range for this time of year, with a high of 88 today in Santa Ana. By Wednesday the daytime highs in Orange County are expected to drop to between the upper 60s and the low 80s.

“It’s going to be cooling down over the next several days,” said Brack with WeatherData. He said the Santa Ana winds are coming to an end and a weak, upper-level storm will be drifting north from Baja California.

“There will be occasional high clouds for the next couple of days,” Brack said, “and a slight chance of afternoon thunderstorms in the southern deserts (today) and Wednesday afternoon.”

Times staff writer Rich Simon contributed to this report.