Catching a Wave

Call it schizophrenic weather: Scorching heat inland. Foggy and cooler temperatures along the coast.

So goes the split personality of Ventura County’s summer weather.

Spurred by a high-pressure system from the east, temperatures soared across the county’s inland areas Thursday, peaking at 101 degrees in Ojai and breaking an 11-year record in Simi Valley with a high of 100 degrees. The numbers marked the beginning of a heat wave that may last into next week.

But even as high temperatures left inland residents scrambling to get indoors, their coastal counterparts in Ventura were basking in an unusual summer fog that kept the high at 78 degrees.

“The beach has been packed all week,” said Destiny Swaffer, a manager at Eric Ericsson’s seafood restaurant on the Ventura Pier.

Across the county in Thousand Oaks, however, it was a different story.

As a temperature gauge along the Ventura Freeway flashed 94 degrees, a group of California Department of Transportation workers mopped their brows and chugged ice water under a shade tree near the Hampshire Road exit.

“I’m missing El Nino,” said site supervisor Benson Lee. “There’s too much sun today. Now we want the rain.”

While coastal temperatures are often 10 to 15 degrees cooler than inland areas, the current disparity is unusually extreme, said Wes Etheredge, a meteorologist with Kansas-based WeatherData Inc.

The reason, Etheredge said, is that the usual coastal marine layer is clashing with a high-pressure system plaguing Texas.

“The marine layer is acting like a thermostat,” he said. “That will keep the coast cool.”

But high temperatures, particularly in the inland areas, are expected to continue, according to Rob Krohn, National Weather Service meteorologist.

“It will be more of the same for the next five days,” he said, adding that it may get “a tiny bit hotter.”

In Simi Valley, where unhealthy levels of ozone accompanied record heat Thursday, preschools and day-care centers have shifted to summer schedules that include a mainstay of the season: water fights.

“We’re playing with water and spraying them down,” said Marie Weckhurst, director of Happy Acres Preschool. Each child has a spray bottle, she said, and they know how to use them.

“They have lots of fun with that,” she said.

Like almost every summer camp in the area, the Simi Valley Boys & Girls Club kept its youngsters indoors Thursday.

“We have all the kids playing inside,” club receptionist Callista Scott said, adding that the staff is on the watch for symptoms of heat stroke or heat exhaustion.

Of course, it’s a different story for those who have to work outdoors.

Mervyn Illangakoon, another Caltrans supervisor in Thousand Oaks, said he lets his workers take longer breaks to compensate for the heat.

But he reminded them it could be worse.

“Here, it’s OK,” Illangakoon said. “But in the [San Fernando] Valley, it’s terrible.”

Mark Harincar, who runs a mobile car washing business in Thousand Oaks, shared a similar philosophy.

“I’m not bothered by the heat; I actually like it,” said a shirtless and tanned Harincar, who was washing one of the 40 cars on his list Thursday. “I grew up in Arizona where it’s 125 degrees.

“This is not hot enough,” Harincar said. “Californians just complain too much.”

But when things do get unbearable, Harincar said, he uses his generator-powered jet hose to cool off.

“Yeah, I’ll spray myself down every now and then,” he said. “But with a hose that puts out 2,000 pounds per square inch, you have to be careful.”

Indeed, beating the heat can be a creative exercise for some, say workers at area air-conditioning services, where phones are ringing off the hooks and waiting lists are getting longer by the hour.

As the summer heats up, desperate callers will often try anything to get their air-conditioning repaired quickly, said Alpine Refrigeration dispatcher Debbie Albert.

“I don’t know if they’re false, but we have calls from mothers coming home from the hospital with newborn babies,” she said. “There have been three in the last couple of weeks, so now I’m a little suspect.”