Heat Rises : Temperatures Hit a Scorching 110 in Spots All Over Valley Area

Yes, it was hot. Really hot. Again.

A scalding 110 degrees in Woodland Hills on Saturday. The same in Van Nuys. And Burbank. And Palmdale. And Saugus.

Lancaster and Newhall lucked out. The mercury in those cities halted its climb at 109.

On the third consecutive day of 100-plus temperatures, though, meteorologists offered cooler predictions: Today’s highs should be lower, by one, two, maybe even three degrees in most of the San Fernando Valley.

Oh, joy.

“Once you hit 90 or 95, it doesn’t make much difference--it’s just hot,” said meteorologist Steve Maneikis of WeatherData Inc.

As happened Friday, the heat and gusts of wind pushed fast-moving fires through bone-dry brush and grasses in the northern reaches of Los Angeles County.

A blaze in the community of Val Verde, northwest of Santa Clarita, burned 12 acres of brush and slightly damaged one home before 75 firefighters and three water-dropping helicopters contained it about 4:30 p.m., a county Fire Department spokesman said.

Three firefighters were injured fighting the blaze, which broke out about 2:30 p.m. near the 30100 block of San Martinez Road. One was treated at a hospital and released after being cut by a chain-saw, and two suffered heat exhaustion, Battalion Chief Gene Wolfe said.

Shortly after 4 p.m., 80 firefighters attacked another brush fire in the Littlerock area south of Palmdale. That blaze, near Mount Emma, blackened 30 acres before it was extinguished about 5:30 p.m., Wolfe said.

Despite the soaring temperatures, several Valley hospitals reported no significant increase in the number of patients admitted for heat-related ailments. City Fire Department spokesman Bob Collis pointed out, however, that the heat can aggravate existing health conditions, such as heart disease and high blood pressure.

An official from the county coroner’s office said he was not aware of any deaths caused by the heat.

Although temperatures were even higher in several cities than the day before, the Department of Water and Power reported less electricity was used Saturday than Friday. And unlike Friday, no power outages were reported in the Valley, DWP spokeswoman Karen Denne said.

The extreme temperatures that have kept much of the population of the western United States sweating for several days have been caused by a high-pressure system, weather forecasters said. In the Valley, the system locks in smog as well as the warmer air and keeps cooler, cleaner marine air from flowing in.

These conditions are expected to remain in place for much of the week, with temperatures dropping just a degree or two each day, said Dave Bruno, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard.

“In general,” he said, “the valleys should stay above normal right through the week.”

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