Splash of Sun Makes Beach the Hot Spot

After weeks of gloomy skies, summer sashayed back in style Saturday, with hot temperatures and sunny blue skies drawing thousands to the beaches and neighborhood pools.

“People are coming out in droves, hanging out on the water’s edge just enjoying that cool ocean breeze,” said Huntington State Beach lifeguard Leon Pickens.

“We rarely fill up our parking lots, but they’re full today [with] people escaping that heat inland,” Pickens said Saturday.

Following two gray, dreary weeks that had people wondering if summer would ever make a reappearance, Orange County residents wasted no time Saturday enjoying the heat. Temperatures climbed to 90 degrees in Santa Ana and 92 degrees at El Toro.

August’s first Saturday also blasted heat records throughout Southern California. The temperature hit 103 degrees in Pasadena, breaking a record set in 1938. Other records included a blistering 106 in Chatsworth and 99 in Long Beach.

A reading of 98 degrees at the Los Angeles Civic Center topped the previous record of 95--a mark that had endured since 1971.

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No records were set in Orange County, but don’t tell that to the hundreds sitting in a traffic jam on the Costa Mesa Freeway heading toward Newport Beach, their beach gear filling back seats, or the road worker sweating in Costa Mesa.

“I wish it would just go away,” said Geoff Roberts, pouring asphalt on Harbor Boulevard.

Southern Californians can expect more sun and heat at least until Wednesday, said Wes Etheredge, a meteorologist with WeatherData Inc., which tracks the weather for The Times.

Etheredge said the heat may seem more biting than it is because it has been an unusually cool summer.

“It’s a little bit higher than normal today, but not astronomically high,” Etheredge said Saturday. “The thing is, the last two months it’s been unseasonably cool, the coolest it’s been for two to three years at least across Southern California and most of Orange County.”

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Etheredge said the weather’s sudden shift can be traced to a high pressure system building near the Nevada border that creates high temperatures and nearly cloudless skies.

But a storm system building over the Gulf of Alaska should hit the region Wednesday or Thursday and bring temperatures down to normal throughout the region, Etheredge said.

On Saturday off the coast, the water was busy with pleasure boats and fishing vessels. On the beaches, volleyball players followed hot games with cool dunks in the ocean.

Jodi Lee Turetzky, a chef visiting from New York City, where sweltering summer humidity is the norm, especially in restaurant kitchens, was unimpressed by Californian complaints about the heat. “You’re kidding me. No. Dudes, this is not hot,” Turetzky said. “Hot is when you have 90% humidity and 96 degrees. That is hot. Please.”