No Heat Records Fall but Southland Still Sizzles
Temperatures fell a few degrees short of a record Sunday, but Southern California continued to cook--baking, broiling and frying in a fall heat wave that has lasted almost five days.
The mercury hit 91 degrees in downtown Los Angeles, two degrees below the 1990 record for Nov. 10, but still 18 degrees above normal readings for this time of year, according to WeatherData Inc., a national meteorological service.
On Saturday, the Civic Center tied a 40-year-old record with a temperature of 94 degrees.
The heat spell is the product of local Santa Ana winds coupled with a high pressure system that has sent warm air sweeping west from Utah. The conditions have kept prevailing sea breezes at bay and pushed even coastal temperatures into the 90s.
Mark Mulholland, a WeatherData meteorologist, said the warm weather is not unseasonable for Southern California’s fall and winter, but noted that such high temperatures rarely reach all the way to the shore.
Diminishing Santa Ana winds should make for slightly cooler temperatures today, with an expected high of 87 in downtown Los Angeles, Mulholland said. The forecast for the rest of the week calls for generally clear skies.
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