Sneaky Heat Scorches O.C.

A heat wave that neared record temperatures Wednesday caught many Orange County residents off-guard after they had become accustomed to mild weather and cool nights for much of the summer.

Some took the opportunity to enjoy a last morsel of summer as if it were an Indian summer, while others were uncomfortably reminded by the Santa Ana-like conditions that this is, after all, Southern California.

“It’s crazy,” said Hania Cardenas, 32, a Huntington Beach resident working in Santa Ana in a wool business suit. “As you can see, I’ve definitely pulled out my winter clothes.”

Santa Ana reported a high of 99 degrees, only one notch away from the record temperature of 100 degrees for the date set in 1963, according to WeatherData, which provides weather information to The Times. The normal high is 82 degrees.

“I love it,” Cardenas said. “I just wish I was more prepared for it.”

The mercury officially reached 105 degrees in Anaheim, 104 in Fullerton and 102 in Irvine, according to WeatherData.

Unofficially, however, county residents baked at even higher temperatures, especially on school grounds where NBC4 WeatherNet checks information.

Temperatures hit 110 at a Placentia school and 109 at schools in Fullerton and La Habra, according to NBC4. Top of the World Elementary School in Laguna Beach reached 97 degrees, while Corona del Mar High School was a cool 91.

Elsewhere, the high was 108 in Monrovia and at the San Diego Wild Animal Park near Escondido; 105 in Vista and El Cajon; 104 in Long Beach, Pasadena, San Gabriel, Thousand Oaks and Santee; 103 in Burbank, Ontario, Fallbrook and Riverside; 101 in Northridge, Simi Valley and Van Nuys; and 100 in Arcadia, Glendale and Hawthorne.

Though the readings in Long Beach, Pasadena, Burbank and Simi Valley tied or broke records for the date, the temperatures across the region are not unusual for this time of year. The region’s hottest weather typically occurs at the end of September and into early October.

WeatherData and other forecasters predict a cooling trend starting today.

Wednesday’s hot weather conditions were like a “weak Santa Ana,” but those desert winds usually blow through much stronger and last much longer, said Art Horton, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in San Diego. He estimated winds at 25 mph in some areas.

A high-pressure system is pushing warm winds from the northeast across Southern California, said WeatherData meteorologist Stacey Johnstone.

“Usually, the winds move from water to land,” Johnstone said. “That’s not happening today, it’s completely opposite.”

Though the pressure dome over Southern California has been around for a while, Wednesday was the first day that the winds actually blew dry and hot from the northeast, she said.

Horton said the Santa Ana condition should weaken today as the normal sea breeze picks up. “There will be more cooling on Friday,” he said.

Today’s temperatures are expected to be in the 70s along the coast and 80s inland, with low clouds and fog in the morning and sun in the afternoon.

Wednesday’s hot weather also took Jennifer Butler, 25, by surprise. She wore a thick sweater for the first time Wednesday, only to find that she was “way overdressed.”

“It was really foggy this morning and I thought I would put on a sweater,” said Butler, who had rolled her sleeves up above her elbow. “It’s been very, very hot in this.”

Like others across the county, she tried to find respite in the shade.

Jennifer Austin, 25, of Mission Viejo and a group of her friends at Cal State Fullerton took some time out between classes to sit on a lawn, underneath the trees. Nearby, students were lining up to buy cold drinks at a juice bar.

“We’re dying,” she said. “If it was in summer, it wouldn’t be so bad, but because we have to work, it makes it so much more unbearable. . . . It’s horrible.”

Naomi Stevens-Caster, 26, of Newport Beach was just glad to be out of her apartment, which doesn’t have air-conditioning. Nishaun Battle, 19, of Fullerton said the weather was “so dry and hot.”

“It’s killing me,” she said. “My contacts are drying up and I can’t read. I can’t retain any thoughts”

After hearing her friends complain about the weather, Delicia Avery, a Cal State Fullerton senior, kindly reminded them that it could be a lot worse.

“It’s California. It’s supposed to be hot. That’s what we’re known for,” said Avery, 21. After spending time recently in hot, humid Georgia, she said, “this is nothing.”

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Hot and Dry

Record high temperatures scorched most of Orange County on Wednesday.

110 degrees: Placentia

109 degrees: La Habra, Fullerton

106 degrees: Lake Forest

105 degrees: Anaheim

103 degrees: Tustin

102 degrees: Orange, Irvine, Garden Grove

99 degrees: Santa Ana

97 degrees: Laguna Beach

93 degrees: San Clemente

91 degrees: Newport Beach

Source: WeatherData, NBC4 WeatherNet, National Weather Service