Sunny Day Lures Many Out to Play

Southern California residents stowed their umbrellas and stormed area parks and beaches Saturday as a blast of sunny, unseasonably warm weather broke what seemed to be a monthlong curse of rain-soaked weekends.

As the noontime temperature hit 77 degrees in downtown Los Angeles and 70 at Los Angeles International Airport, crowds migrated to beaches and places like Griffith Park and the Huntington Botanical Gardens in San Marino.

From his vantage point beside the Santa Monica Pier, Los Angeles County Lifeguard Patrick Jones watched as more than 15,000 people clamped on in-line skates, pedaled bicycles or lounged on the sand.

“With weather like this, you have to expect a crowd,” Jones said. “You can see all the way to Catalina Island today. It’s beautiful.”

And behind the snack counter at the Griffith Park pony ride, Robert Martin said he could barely keep up with the demand for hot dogs and sodas. “You can tell people are really happy to be out again. The rain kept them in for so long,” Martin said.

At WeatherData Inc., the firm that provides weather information to The Times, meteorologist Amy Talmage said residents would not see more rain for at least five days. She said the mercury would begin dropping today and hit the low to mid-60s at the middle of the week.

“People are smiling again. The energy is back,” said one security guard at the Huntington Botanical Gardens, which had more than 3,000 visitors Saturday.