The Southland Swelters in Record-Breaking Heat

Families frolicked on the beaches. Dads sneaked out of work early to play a round of golf. And kids ran to swimming pools to splash in the cool water.

The calendar may say winter but the temperature gauge in Southern California is definitely pointing toward summer.

In Ventura, Los Angeles and Orange counties, the unseasonably warm weather Friday broke temperature records, prompting sun-loving Southern Californians to find any excuse to get outside.

At a time of year when most people would be huddled inside to avoid winter rains, dozens of mothers with young children flocked to beaches with pails, shovels, and in at least one instance, borrowed summer beach clothes.

San Francisco resident Ruth Wilford, visiting her stepmother in Ventura with her daughter Jessica, said the warm weather caught her by surprise.

“We packed all our cold-weather stuff,” Wilford said as she sat on a fold-up chair near Ventura Beach reading a paperback and wearing a T-shirt and sandals borrowed from her stepmother, Marvis Gleerup.

The warm weather broke records Friday in Yorba Linda, where the mercury reached 91 degrees, surpassing the record of 85 in 1961. Santa Ana recorded a high of 93 degrees, breaking its record of 87 in 1995. Downtown Los Angeles reached 90 degrees, eclipsing the previous high of 86 in 1989.

Temperatures in Chatsworth reached 90 degrees, edging out the previous high of 88 in 1989.

The city of Ventura hit 85 degrees, breaking its record of 82 back in 1990. Oxnard saw a high of 89, edging out its record of 87 in 1954. Simi Valley also hit 89, breaking its record of 86 in 1989.

“There was a combination of strong high pressure, light offshore winds and sunny skies that caused the heat,” said Bruce Rockwell, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard. “Tomorrow should be 10 to 15 degrees cooler.”

Despite the predicted cooling trend, “you’re gonna stay hot for a bit,” said Eric Edge, a forecaster with Weather Central Inc., which provides forecasting services for The Times. “You have yourselves a summer in wintertime.”

More summer weather will likely draw even more people outside in the next few days.

More than 3,000 people flocked to Ventura city beaches Friday, said Brian Ketterer, a supervising lifeguard for the state Department of Parks and Recreation based in Ventura. Fewer than 2,000 people come to the beach on a normal winter day, he said.

The sudden heat wave forced Ketterer to call in as many of the 56 on-call lifeguards as possible for the weekend.

“You call in people as best you can,” Ketterer said. “This caught us totally off-guard.”

Lifeguards, swimming pool attendants and golf pros throughout the region reported unusually big crowds enjoying the sunny weather.

Even though the temperature was in the high 80s Friday afternoon, Sharon Hillenbrand of Northridge dressed her 4-year-old daughter Lucy in boots and mittens.

Lucy, who attends the Magic Years Nursery School in Reseda, frolicked in a yard covered with snow. She carried snowballs in her red mittens and rode down a snow-covered straw hill on a plastic sled.

For seven years the school has had 16 tons of snow delivered each February. But on Friday school officials didn’t expect the weather to feel like summer.

“This is the best place to be when it’s this hot outside,” Hillenbrand said. “What a Southern California way to do it.”

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Staff writers Timothy Hughes and Times special correspondent Matthew Ebnet contributed to this report.