Heat Records Topple as Mercury Soars

Summerlike weather, the likes of which had not been seen around Southern California since back in mid-January, returned Monday as the mercury reached 94 degrees in downtown Los Angeles and 90 degrees in Santa Ana, surpassing the previous records for the date.

The high for Los Angeles, set in 1921 and tied in 1954, was 89 degrees. The previous high for Orange County also was 89 degrees, recorded in Anaheim in 1951.

Monday’s low of 65 degrees in Los Angeles also was a record, wiping out the 1954 figure of 62 as the warmest minimum reading for a Feb. 24.

The lows in Santa Ana and Newport on Monday were 53 and 56 degrees, respectively. Newport’s high reached 78 degrees.

With a surface high-pressure system camped over Nevada and Utah to set up a mild Santa Ana condition and with an upper-level high off the coast shunting the Pacific storm track northward, the drenching downpours of the last couple of weeks are history.

It was the same weather pattern that put January in the record book with an average Los Angeles Civic Center temperature of 65.9 degrees--the highest January average since the government began keeping weather records in the late 1800s.

Southern California beaches drew big crowds Monday. By noon, when the temperature had already reached 90, Los Angeles County lifeguards estimated that nearly 200,000 people were on the sands from Zuma to Long Beach.

Temperatures are expected to be slightly cooler today, the National Weather Service said, as the high-pressure system weakens to allow a little more sea breeze onshore. Highs today should range from 75 to 83 at the beaches and from 86 to 92 in the inland valleys.