Summer Heat Finally Arrives in Southland

It was hot in Southern California on Tuesday, and in case you’d forgotten, that’s what it usually is around here at this time of year.

The high temperature at the Los Angeles Civic Center, recorded at 11:46 a.m., was 85 degrees, and that’s the normal high for the date.

The low temperature downtown, recorded at 6:06 a.m., was 65 degrees, and that’s just one degree below normal.

But after July, which was quite a bit cooler than normal, 85 seemed uncomfortably warm. And it was even hotter Tuesday in the San Fernando Valley--106 in Woodland Hills and 105 in Chatsworth, tying a record for the date set in 1975.

It was 101 in Northridge and 100 in Van Nuys, enough to prompt nursery owners to do some extra irrigating.

Even though that means higher water bills, Joe Frey, manager of the the Four Seasons nursery in Northridge, said it’s the cost of doing business in the summer.

“A plant can crash without water within a day,” he said. “Lots of water is the only way to keep them going.”

To keep plants from wilting in the heat, Robert Goka, owner of the Reseda Boulevard Nursery in Northridge, advised gardeners to water more frequently, especially in the early morning and late evening.

“Grass can be a problem,” he said. “Make sure all sprinklers are working and that you water every station for 10 minutes every day.”

In Orange County, where Tuesday’s thermometer readings peaked in the mid-90s, inland residents headed for the beaches. About 70,000 turned out in Newport Beach, about a third more than usual for a weekday in August.

Warm temperatures statewide pushed Tuesday’s power use to 41,000 megawatts, 3,000 below the state supply of 44,000 megawatts, but close enough for the Independent Service Operator, which oversees the state’s electricity grid, to watch the figures closely.

There haven’t been any rolling blackouts in energy-starved California since May, but officials warn that the state’s demand usually surges in late August and early September, when temperatures often are the hottest.

Looking ahead, the weather service said temperatures should remain normally warm through Friday, possibly cooling off a little over the weekend.

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Times staff writers Holly Wolcott in Ventura and Matthew Ebnet in Orange County contributed to this story.