Temperatures in the Valley Top 100 Mark

By BETH SHUSTER

July 28, 1995 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Temperatures soared throughout the San Fernando Valley on Thursday, sending scores of residents to air-conditioned shopping malls and back-yard swimming pools to escape near-record heat that forecasters say will continue today.

“It’ll be almost identical, so keep the cold water handy,” advised Bill Hoffer, a weather specialist with the National Weather Service.

On Thursday, Burbank matched a 48-year record, reaching 106 degrees by midafternoon. The temperature in Van Nuys topped at 110 degrees, and Palmdale and Lancaster both reached 106. Electricity was cut for several hours in some parts of Van Nuys, Granada Hills, Canoga Park and Reseda, a city utility spokeswoman said.

Temperatures were so high that even Valley smog sought escape, pushed upward through the inversion layer in an unusual weather pattern that kept skies clear, said Lisha Smith, a spokeswoman for the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

The hot temperatures are being caused by a sprawling high pressure system in the upper atmosphere, extending east from California to the central and southern plains, said Curtis Brack, a meteorologist with WeatherData, which provides weather information to The Times. The system is also keeping out the marine layer that usually cools summer mornings.

Closer to Earth, workers paving a freeway on-ramp in Woodland Hills on Thursday had a hell of a day--and a thermometer stuck in the steaming black asphalt proved it, registering 325 degrees at noon.

“Well done, they call it,” said a red-faced Wil Wilkerson, who runs the asphalt-laying screed machine.

In Pacoima, a fast-moving brush fire consumed 10 acres near Whiteman Air Park, coming within 100 feet of homes before firefighters extinguished the flames, authorities said.

Flames, some reportedly 20 feet high, rushed toward about 10 homes with tile roofs near the intersection of Glenoaks Boulevard and Osborne Street. The fire started just before 5 p.m. and was put out 45 minutes later, said Bob Collis, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Fire Department. He said the cause was listed as “suspicious.”

No one was hurt or evacuated, Collis said, and no structures were damaged. He credited homeowners’ compliance with regulations requiring them to cut down brush near houses.

“People in the area complied with brush clearance and the fire just stopped,” said Collis. “There was nothing to burn.”

The fire burned up to the back fence of two homes, residents said. “The whole field just kind of blew up,” said a man who would identify himself only as Carlos. “It was hot enough outside.”

Collis said 75 Los Angeles city and county firefighters battled the blaze, along with one county fire and three city fire helicopter crews.

Whiteman air traffic continued, but aircraft practicing takeoffs and landings were asked to keep out of the path of water-dropping helicopters, an airport spokesman said.

At Zuma Beach, where temperatures remained in the upper 60s, Lifeguard Chris Hammond said an estimated 50,000 people sought refuge on the sand.

“It’s probably the busiest day we’ve seen, barring the Fourth of July,” he said.

But for those who didn’t have the luxury of going to the beach, it was a day to try anything to stay cool.

Enrique Esparza, a 29-year-old construction worker who was helping build a 111-unit apartment building in Northridge, made a makeshift sombrero using cardboard taped over his short-brim hard hat. “Yesterday I didn’t have it, but today I’m cooler,” he said.

Across the Valley, parks were quiet and public swimming pools were full. Malls, including the recently reopened Northridge Fashion Center, reported scores of shoppers. Ice cream shop clerks could barely keep up.

“It’s been the busiest morning that I’ve ever worked,” said Carolina Oyanguren, dishing out gallons of frozen yogurt and iced coffee. Customers began lining up at the Woodland Hills Baskin-Robbins when the shop opened at 11 a.m.

City Department of Water and Power workers Al Garcia and Steve Bermudes struggled to stay cool and still complete their work painting street light poles. They managed to find some street poles shaded by trees, but when Bermudes reached the top, he found the sun shone directly on his red, sweat-soaked face.

“There’s no shade up here,” he said.

At a Woodland Hills dry cleaners, customer Lucy Payson told clerks her car thermometer climbed to 108 degrees. “I’m going home immediately,” she said.

Schoolteachers kept students inside, away from boiling playgrounds,

Canoga Park Elementary School Principal Forrest Ross said the air-conditioned classrooms were the coolest place for many students who don’t have such a luxury at home. “School can be a sanctuary,” Ross said.

Principal Pat Abney of Hazeltine Avenue Elementary in Van Nuys also gave the order early: “No balls outside and no playing,” he said.

About 11,500 homes in Northridge, Chatsworth and Granada Hills were left without power during the hottest part of the day Thursday, no fault of the weather. Construction crews apparently struck underground cables, said Mindy Berman, spokeswoman for the Department of Water and Power.

But the heat had no effect on some die-hard athletes. One man jogging on Roscoe Boulevard in West Hills during blistering mid-day heat, shrugged off the temperatures. “It’s really not that bad,” he said.

Times staff writer Jeannette DeSantis and correspondent Eric Slater contributed to this story.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Turning Up the Heat

Blistering heat hit the San Fernando Valley area Thursday, setting records at some recording stations. Warmed, compressed air in an upper-atmosphere, high-pressure zone is keeping the cooling marine layer near the coast.

All-time Highs

Record high temperatures at various San Fernando an Antelope Valley recording stations, along with Thursday’s high:

Burbank

Record high: 106 (1947)

Thursday high: 106

Van Nuys*

Record high: --

Thursday high: 110

Lancaster

Record high: 107 (1980)

Thursday high: 106

Palmdale