More Heat, Humidity Will Fill the Air Today

It was hot and muggy in Southern California Monday.

The temperature rose to 94 degrees in Los Angeles (six degrees short of the June 30 record, set just last year) but most people thought it was hotter because of the moisture in the air: relative humidity ranged from 66% overnight to 35% by mid-afternoon.

The heat was only slightly less oppressive in inland Orange County. The highs were 89 in Santa Ana and El Toro and 88 in San Juan Capistrano. As usual, the coastal cities escaped with more moderate temperatures--73 in Newport Beach, for example.

The National Weather Service blamed it all on a weakening of the ridge of low pressure that has been hovering over the desert.

This gradual equalization of air pressure offshore and onshore, meteorologists explained, means there hasn’t been much of a sea breeze--which in turn has thinned the low clouds that usually cover the sky during the morning hours, causing skies to clear earlier.

And forecasters said it is going to stay this way for a while. For today the weather service predicted a high of 87 for Santa Ana, 77 for Newport Beach and Huntington Beach and 94 for downtown Los Angeles, with more of the same expected Wednesday.

The outlook for Orange County’s Fourth of July, according to the weather service: “Early morning coastal fog or low clouds, otherwise fair skies with little temperature change.”