San Diegans Head to Beach as Heat Soars

SAN DIEGO —  In an effort to beat near-record heat Tuesday, thousands of San Diego County residents abandoned work, school and social responsibility to heed the call to get beach-bound.

However, while sun screen and beach umbrellas spelled survival for throngs of sand and surf seekers, local growers scrambled to pick strawberries that began ripening too quickly under the hot sun.

The mercury reached 90 degrees at Lindbergh Field, just one degree shy of the record high of 91 degrees set in 1971. The National Weather Service also reported highs of 103 at El Cajon’s Gillespie Field, 100 in Fallbrook, 98 at the Wild Animal Park and in Escondido. The scorching temperatures are expected to last through Friday.

City lifeguards reported weekend-like crowds with thousands of people arriving at beaches as early as 10 a.m. Tuesday. By noon, about 6,000 people were taking advantage of the calm waters and mid-70-degree weather at Mission Beach, and about 12,000 people sprawled out along La Jolla Shores.

“I’m kind of wondering if school got out early today,” said Jeff Koller, a lifeguard at Del Mar beach where about 2,500 people turned out. “This is no weekday crowd.”

While the heat might have caused discomfort for many people, it pushed a panic button for some local strawberry growers, who fear that many more hot days like Tuesday will cause the fruit to ripen too quickly and bruise or rot.

Jon Ukegawa, sales manager for Jiumarra of Carlsbad, a company that owns many acres of various crops in North County, including 150 acres of strawberries, said that hot weather can be as damaging as winter frosts. He said that thanks to a heat advisory issued last weekend by the National Weather Service, he was able to avert disaster.

“Usually we’d let the field stay three days to ripen enough, and we’d pick in rounds,” Ukegawa said. “Because of this heat, we’ve switched to every two days, picking half a round one day and half the next, leaving one day to ripen.”

Fruit Ripening Quickly

Ukegawa said they have been able to keep up with the picking, but if the warm weather continues he will have to increase the number of pickers by 20%, or add several extra picking hours to each day.

“I think by no means are we out of the woods on this,” he said. “You can see how quickly the fruit is ripening. And the nighttime temperatures are warm too, so it never really cools off.”

The hot weather has not created any energy supply problems, however. San Diego Gas & Electric reported Tuesday that energy use was a little higher than normal for the beginning of April, but it was nowhere near a record.

“We used 2,008 megawatts of energy Monday,” said SDG&E; spokesman Tom Murnane. “Today (Tuesday) the high use was 2,300 megawatts, up 300 megawatts, and we’re still not near the record of 2,831 megawatts set last Sept. 6.”

The San Diego County Air Pollution Control District reported that air quality was good-to-moderate for most of the county, but Del Mar did receive an unhealthful reading of 113. A reading between 100 and 199 means the air is unhealthy, according to federal clean air standards.

“We didn’t come anywhere near a smog alert,” said staff meteorologist Tom Ryan. “A majority of San Diego County was in the good-to-moderate range, which means a reading of less than 100.”

Downtown San Diego had a reading of 67. Oceanside was up to 92, which is still moderate, but close to the unhealthy stage, he said.

“When air quality gets in the moderate range and combines with high temperatures like today and for the next couple of days, it could have an adverse effect on anyone,” Ryan said. “What we try to advise people to do is seek shelter during the afternoon hours, preferably in air-conditioned places.”

The heat wave is expected to last at least through Friday, and forecaster Wilbur Shigehara said record-breaking temperatures today and Thursday are a certainty.

“This Santa Ana is hotter than blazes. We are under this spell at least until the weekend,” he said. “The record high temperature Wednesday is 89, set in 1939. We’re definitely going to break that.”

A high-pressure system near Nevada is responsible for the sudden heat, Shigehara said.

Coastal highs through Friday will be 85 to 92 degrees, and 93 to 103 in the inland areas. Overnight lows along the coast and inland will be 55 to 65.

It Sizzled Elsewhere, Too

Tuesday was also a sizzler elsewhere in Southern California. Hot, dry Santa Ana winds sent the temperature to a record-shattering 100 degrees in downtown Los Angeles, while three-digit temperatures were recorded in San Gabriel, Long Beach and Monrovia.

The mercury hit the upper 80s at local beaches, where lifeguards reported crowds more typical of a summer Sunday. At Hermosa, Santa Monica and Zuma beaches, tens of thousands of people apparently ditched work to spend the day on the sand. The heavy crowds exacerbated problems for lifeguards, who were already hobbled by a lack of manpower and a riptide condition created by a recent storm, which raised a heavy surf that carved channels on the beach bottom.

Winds fanned a brush fire Monday night in the foothills near Ventura County’s Rincon Mountain that blackened 200 acres before being brought under control early Tuesday, authorities said. That fire, which was located east of Carpinteria, charred a lemon grove as well as a small portion of what is believed to be the only working banana grove in the continental United States, fire officials said.

A heat advisory warned against strenuous activities in the hot sun, where temperatures were expected to be high enough to cause sunstroke, heat cramps and dehydration, weather service officials said.