Summer Season Kickoff: It’s Warm

Under bright, sunny skies and near record temperatures, crowds flocked to the beaches, sought relief at outdoor events honoring veterans and broke out the hot dogs and barbecue grills, giving summer its traditional Memorial Day weekend kick-start.

Pacific Coast Highway was bumper-to-bumper with traffic for hours Sunday, mostly because of huge crowds at the beach, said Sgt. Phil Morris of the Malibu sheriff’s substation. He said it was the biggest beach crowd so far this year, and though large, it was orderly.

“We were surprised by the size of the crowds that came out today,” Morris said.

In Newport Beach, police Sgt. Craig Fox said there was “a lot of cars and a lot of sunshine. The peninsula was very crowded. It’s pretty average for Memorial Day weekend.”

Cars moved bumper to bumper from 20th Street to the Balboa Pier, he said.

In Laguna Beach, police Sgt. Ray Lardie said it was overcast and cloudy all day. But that didn’t stop sun seekers, who created the usual weekend traffic delays, he said.

The heat eased somewhat Sunday. In Orange County, the highest Sunday temperature was in Anaheim and Fullerton Airport at 89 degrees. That was 10 degrees cooler than Lake Forest’s 99 degrees Saturday.

This heat wave marks another turn in the roller-coaster weather pattern of recent days, said Amy Talmage, a meteorologist for WeatherData. It started last weekend when a similar high-pressure system set records throughout the region, followed by low pressure that brought fog and drizzle by the middle of the week.

Today should bring slight cooling, as low pressure moves into the Pacific Northwest and sets the pattern for what some call June gloom. Fog should dissipate on the coast by midafternoon. Inland temperatures could still reach 100 degrees, while the beaches should stay in the upper 70s.

The California Highway Patrol said that statewide eight traffic deaths were reported during the first 36 hours of the Memorial Day holiday weekend. That compares with 14 deaths during the same period last year.

At Santa Clarita’s William S. Hart Park on Sunday, there were more people in line to buy soft drinks than there were to watch the first few minutes of the country music festival.

As time went on, families in straw hats and baseball caps gathered in bunches under the many shade trees.

“This bottle, this is about how much I’ve sweated already today,” 14-year-old Erica Saucedo said, holding a level hand up to the neck of a 20-ounce bottle. Erica and other children had walked back and forth to the park several times from a Newhall neighborhood blocks away.

Erica’s bare shoulders and neck were a sticky blue from the cooling sports drink she had allowed to spill over her body.

“I’d rather be sticky than hot,” she said.

*

Times staff writers Jennifer Mena, Joe Mozingo and Zanto Peabody contributed to this story.