Overheated

Their air conditioners were pumping full blast, but Automobile Club of Southern California dispatchers in Burbank were nonetheless sweating the heat Monday.

While the August sun baked the San Fernando Valley at record temperatures of 107 degrees in Chatsworth and 105 degrees in Woodland Hills, more than 100 calls per minute poured in from motorists stranded by overheated cars.

“We are already experiencing a big, big volume,” Automobile Club dispatcher Elizabeth Barber said, with some urgency, over the ringing phones in her office. “People are stalling all over the region.”

That problem may continue until at least Thursday, when the heat wave embracing Southern California is expected to subside. Before then, a few more heat records are expected to fall.

“There’s definitely a possibility we will see temperatures higher than we’ve ever seen before during this time of year,” said Les Etheredge, of the national WeatherData service.

Temperatures today are expected to range between the upper 90s in Burbank and 107 degrees in Chatsworth, Etheredge said. The record on this date is 101 degrees for Burbank and 107 degrees for Chatsworth.

The sun’s ultraviolet rays are expected to be intense enough to give fair-skinned people a sunburn in four minutes, Etheredge said.

In addition to the Automobile Club, other agencies routinely affected by the weather expect the worst this week. Both the American Red Cross and Southern California Edison issued heat advisories urging people to stay cool--but not too cool.

Worried about power outages, Edison executives asked their customers to ease up on the air conditioners. The utility company, which serves roughly 4.3 million customers in Southern California, is concerned that power outages will occur during this week’s heat wave.

“Any time it gets really hot, there is a big demand for electricity,” said company spokesman Thomas Boyd. “We’re asking people to be a little more prudent about staying cool.”

That, of course, is easier to do when you have air conditioning--a luxury that officers at the Los Angeles Police Department’s Van Nuys station did not have Monday.

“Ours went off Friday afternoon,” said Sgt. Robert Hunter. The heat wave began Saturday. “The guys are not complaining that much,” he said. “They’ve been out in the field. We’re the ones stuck inside.”

While tow trucks tended to overheated cars Monday, paramedics raced to rescue other Valley residents stuck outside. Five cases of heat exhaustion were treated by the Los Angeles Fire Department, officials said. None of the cases were life threatening.

Local hospitals also reported a handful of minor asthma emergencies, induced by dry winds.

“During dry weather, lungs become constricted, which causes some people to experience shortness of breath,” a spokeswoman at Pacifica Hospital of the Valley explained.

Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Jim Wells said some people do not realize they are susceptible to such reactions until it is too late.

“Sometimes people go out in the sun and are not aware of the effects the heat has on them,” he said. “They think they can handle the weather.”

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Heat Watch

The current mini-heat wave will continue into Tuesday. Then the triple-digit highs should subside.

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City Monday highs Record for day Burbank 101 101 (1971) Chatsworth 107 107 (1997) Glendale 99 n/a Lancaster 105 107 (1969) Newhall 100 n/a Van Nuys 105 n/a Woodland Hills 105 105 (1992)

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Source: WeatherData, National Weather Service