Locals Feel the Heat, but Try to Play It Cool

When Nati Razo decided to walk the five blocks from her house to downtown Fillmore on Sunday, she took an umbrella.

By the time she reached Central Avenue just before noon, the shade provided little relief from the 98 degrees that pounded the town--the highest temperature officially recorded in Ventura County on Sunday.

And the heat seemed to have slowed the usually sleepy town to a virtual standstill. Traffic was slow. Residents walked slowly and talked slowly--if at all.

“Sure is hot,” drawled a man sitting in the shade outside the Central Market.

“Si, hace calor,” replied a man nearby, fanning himself with a baseball cap. “Mucho calor.”

Silence.

The market was the only place with any significant activity in town. Cold beer topped the day’s bestseller list, closely followed by ice and sodas, according to a store clerk.

Weekend temperatures throughout the county were about 10 degrees warmer than normal for this time of year, and relief from the high-pressure system creating the heat wave will be slow in coming, said weather experts.

“These temperatures are going to stay warm,” said Stuart Seto, a specialist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard. “We will see a gradual cooling from Monday through Wednesday, but only by about one or two degrees each day.”

Pollution levels were also high throughout the county, and will get worse today, according to Gary Arcemont of the Ventura County Air Pollution Control District.

“There is a strong high-pressure system that acts like a lid and prevents pollution from dispersing,” Arcemont said.

On Sunday, the pollution standard index ranged from 75 in Ventura to 103 in Simi Valley. Levels of 100 or higher are considered unhealthful, and today they are expected to top that mark in Ojai, Thousand Oaks and Fillmore, and to be as high as 125 in Simi Valley.

“In such conditions, it’s good for people to stay indoors and reduce physical activity,” Arcemont said.

On Sunday, a high of 95 degrees in Simi Valley sent residents away from parks and into pools.

“We have very little gym attendance,” said Kristy Predmore, a recreation specialist with the Rancho Santa Susana Community Center. “And the park next door is nearly empty.” But at the nearby Rancho Simi Community Park Pool, attendance was more than double the usual.

Those who ventured toward coastal areas were rewarded with more than cool water. On average, coastal temperatures were nearly 20 degrees cooler than in inland valleys, with Ventura reaching a high of 74.

Sunday’s high inland temperatures, as well as a series of small brush fires Saturday, kept firefighters on heightened alert.

A fire that began Saturday afternoon in Los Padres National Forest--which officials suspect was deliberately set--was contained early Sunday. The blaze, just north of Ojai, burned about 112 acres of sparsely vegetated hillsides.

In Fillmore, while three children played around a fountain in the midday heat, Dale Wyant was wearily getting ready for a train ride. For the 39-year-old locomotive engineer from Oxnard, this was the second two-hour round-trip between Fillmore and Santa Paula of the day. Inside the glass and steel cab of the tourist train, temperatures get up to 115 degrees, he said.

“It’s like an oven in there,” Wyant said. “It kind of bakes.”