Mercury Soars Into 80s : Region Basks in Winter Warmth

It wasn’t much like February on Thursday as a warm Santa Ana wind condition settled over Southern California and seemed prepared to hang around through Saturday at least, with more gusts below the canyons and a touch of smog.

With a large high-pressure system stalled inland, a high temperature of 80 degrees was recorded in Santa Ana. That did not threaten the county record of 86 degrees for the date set in Anaheim in 1963, but it was warm enough to send people swarming to Orange County beaches.

Along the coast, at Newport Beach, the National Weather Service reported a 30-degree spread--from 52 degrees to 82 degrees--between the early-morning low and the afternoon high. In San Juan Capistrano, an even greater spread was recorded, from 37 degrees to 80 degrees.

The National Weather Service said skies should be clear today and Saturday, with local east to northeast winds gusting to 15 to 25 miles per hour, but decreasing by nightfall. Temperatures should be seasonally moderate, with highs both days ranging from 68 to 76 and lows from the mid-40s to the low 50s.

By Sunday, some high cloudiness should move in, along with a cooling trend.

Thursday’s downtown Los Angeles maximum was only three degrees below the record high for the date set in 1954.

The 15- to 30-m.p.h. winds out of the passes and canyons are expected to decrease gradually on Saturday, said Cary Schudy of Earth Environment Service, a private weather service based in San Francisco.

There wasn’t enough wind in some areas Thursday to scrub away all the air pollution, however. A first stage alert--meaning that the air was unhealthful for everyone--was called at 9 a.m. in South-Central Los Angeles because of carbon monoxide but was canceled an hour later.

The South Coast Air Quality Management District predicted more of the same for Metropolitan Los Angeles and coastal areas today.

Jim Birakos, deputy executive director of the AQMD, pointed out that this is the time of the year when the inversion layer keeps car exhaust fumes from rising after the morning traffic crush.

Southern California water officials, meantime, said it is too early to worry about the Sierra snow shortage that has resulted from the state’s stingiest rainy season in a decade and the poor runoff into Northern California rivers.

National Weather Service hydrologist Gary Barbato said in San Francisco that with more than half of the rain season already past, the northern and central parts of the state have had less than 30% of their normal season precipitation.

The lack of rainfall is being blamed on a persistent “Pacific high,” a ridge of high pressure that usually slips south during these months, allowing Gulf of Alaska storms to swing down into California. This year, however, the high has remained to the north.

Rain Still Below Normal

(Southern California, which normally has a total of 8.71 inches of rain by this time, has had only 5.38 inches so far.)

Maurice Roos, of the state Department of Water Resources, said, “We ought to have about two-thirds of our snow pack by this time and it looks like we only have about one quarter.”

For the moment, though, all that seemed more of a threat to San Francisco and other Northern California population centers than to the Southland, where much of the water supply comes from the Colorado River.

Jay Malinowski, of the Metropolitan Water District, noted that MWD supplies about half the water dispensed by various water districts in the urban areas and coastal plain of Southern California. Of that portion, he pointed out, half comes from the Colorado “which is running unusually high and has been for two or three years” because of heavy rainfall over the Rockies.

Not to Worry, Yet

With that supply and with plenty of water in reservoirs, Malinowski said, there is no worry in this part of the state, yet.

“But if we have a continuation of this kind of weather next year,” he conceded, “then we will have some problems because there is no indication the Colorado River is going to remain at this high flow.”

Private forecaster Schudy said, “If we don’t get some significant rain in the next couple of months, we’re going to be in for an awful fire season, if nothing else.”

Southern California mountains and high deserts should have maximum readings from the mid-50s to mid-60s on Saturday while the low deserts will have highs 72 to 82. All areas will be slightly cooler on Sunday.

Along Southland beaches, the surf is expected to be two to four feet from Zuma to Newport and three to five feet at Mission Beach in San Diego today. There will be a slight increase in surf and swell on Saturday, forecasters said.