3rd Day of Soaring Mercury Keeps Valley in Meltdown

Coping with heat is relative, said Leroy Alcala.

“It’s all in the mind--really.”

He’s entitled to wax philosophical. At the time, he was also supervising a group of construction workers laying blacktop on Roscoe Boulevard in Van Nuys, with visible 400-degree heat waves shimmering off the surface Monday to join the 100-degree-plus air of the San Fernando Valley’s first heat wave this summer.

Mind power like Alcala’s has become a valuable asset in the Valley the past three days. Temperatures hovered near or above 100 this weekend and continued to crack thermometers as people returned to work Monday.

Northridge checked in with 105 degrees, Van Nuys 102, Burbank 97 and Woodland Hills a sizzling 106, nearing the record high of 109 set for this date in 1985.

Forecasters said the Valley will cool by a few degrees starting today and into the July 4 holiday on Thursday, but could not promise a temperature below the mid-90s this weekend.

“We might see some relief this weekend but it’s a little too soon to say that definitely,” said Dennis Tussey, a National Weather Service Meteorologist.

Meanwhile, those who did not have business under the sun stayed indoors and turned their air conditioners on full blast.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power reported a 15% increase citywide in electric power usage over the norm for a July weekday.

Other methods also took hold, said Catherine Sodhy who works behind the counter at a frozen yogurt shop in Santa Clarita, where temperatures were also over 100.

She said she’d been serving up scoop after scoop, swirl after swirl, since her shift began at 11 a.m.

“We’ve been selling a lot of iced drinks too,” she said. “Mango madness is real popular today.”

Fidel Rodriquez, a gardener guiding his weed eater over a Panorama City warehouse parking lot, lamented that he poorly managed his schedule.

He scheduled a job near Santa Monica Beach for the morning--before the Valley had warmed up--and another for the Valley after the heat soared at midday, when he could have been working in afternoon ocean breezes if he had reversed them.

“At least I only have to work half a day here,” he said, wiping the sweat from his brow.