Thermometer Doesn’t Wait for Start of Summer

The calendar says it’s still more than a week away, but by the measures that count, summer arrived Sunday.

Taxi driver Hernd Vartanian could tell from his cab’s sticky vinyl seats. Lifeguard Jay Hopkins could tell from the smell of greasy sunscreen.

And Lorena Molina could tell from the crush around her Downtown newsstand. Sweating mothers, primping teen-agers and smiling young men pressed close, rushing to pick up the latest Spanish-language magazines. “They all want to read under a tree somewhere,” she said.

No wonder.

Temperatures leaped into the mid-90s across much of Southern California--into triple digits some places--and the sun sparkled almost nonstop.

“This seems like the season opener,” Hopkins said. “It’s a good start to summer.”

Palm Springs scored the area’s highest temperature: 109 degrees. Woodland Hills recorded a 101-degree reading, and Monrovia reached 100.

Other inland communities boasted distinctly summertime temperatures, as well. Both Riverside and Van Nuys hit 99 degrees. The afternoon high was 96 degrees in Burbank, 91 at the Civic Center and 90 in Anaheim.

Most of the San Fernando Valley, San Gabriel Valley and Inland Empire recorded their hottest temperatures of the year. The mercury in Monrovia, Van Nuys and Ontario edged a few degrees above the previous record highs, set during a winter warm snap in early February.

“This is quite a bit hotter than our last warm spell,” weather specialist Stuart Seto said.

The ideal beach weather should persist through the middle of the week, Seto said. Though temperatures probably will cool a bit Tuesday through Thursday, the skies will remain clear and sunny, he said.

So Victor Rojas should have ample excuses to down a few icy sangrias.

“When it’s this hot, I’m not very hungry,” he said at a steaming Mexican fast-food restaurant Downtown. Though he managed to polish off a plate of food, with the sangrias, the Huntington Park resident said he would prefer camping out under the stars.

Hiromi Kobayashi spent Sunday working Downtown--shepherding two Japanese tourists around Little Tokyo until the heat wore them out, and they flopped gratefully into the shade with cans of iced tea.

Nearby, Yuri Mironenko wished that he could find some tourists of his own. A taxi driver who emigrated from Russia nearly three years ago, Mironenko tried to beat the soaring mercury by opening his cab’s door and rolling down all the windows as he waited for passengers outside the New Otani Hotel.

It wasn’t working.

“When it’s cool out, it’s easier to work,” Mironenko said. Groping for a bright side, he noted hopefully: “When it’s warmer, it’s better for those who come to L.A. to visit. And for me, it’s better when there are lots of visitors.”

Yet few of those visitors seemed to need taxis Sunday. Vartanian, an Armenian immigrant, waited in vain for two hours, then abandoned his sauna-like cab to snatch a few minutes in the shade.

Spurning the shade altogether, hundreds of weekend athletes hit the boardwalk in Marina del Rey to work on their tans as they jogged, bicycled or roller-bladed past the sparkling water.

From her volunteer post at the marina’s information booth, Carmen Pedreira watched the parking lot fill.

“This is really the first day it’s been pretty in the morning,” she said. “People like to jog and walk here because when you’re near the water, you don’t have to ingest all the car fumes.”

Then she added: “You just get all the boat fumes.”

The weather drew about 700,000 people to Los Angeles County beaches, toting colorful parasols and coolers packed with food. By 9 a.m., dozens of bold souls were dipping into the 62-degree water at Zuma Beach.