Simi Sweats Out a Record August Temperature of 110

SIMI VALLEY —  It seemed as though only a few more degrees would have set swimming pools aboil on Saturday.

The mercury reached a sizzling 110--the hottest recorded in any August since the National Weather Service started keeping records here 32 years ago, according to the service’s Bill Hoffer.

The searing heat made the afternoon of Aug. 6, 1997, seem downright polar. That’s when it hit 109 here.

Residents reacted to the blast-furnace conditions predictably.

“My husband’s trying to do some stuff out there, but he’s not happy,” said Nita Myszkowski, a Simi Valley mother of five who attempted to stay comfortable by sitting indoors at her computer most of the day.

Her children had scattered to the places people customarily go in trying times--the mall and the beach. At 4 p.m., the Myszkowskis’ patio thermometer registered 110.

Hoffer said Simi Valley should expect similar heat today. The forecast here and for Thousand Oaks was 104.

“It’s not unseasonable, but obviously we broke some records,” Hoffer said. “That’s the animal of meteorology for you.”

It was 109 in Ojai. The forecast for today was 108.

A daytime record was broken in Oxnard on Saturday, where it reached 89 degrees. The last record-buster there was 86 degrees, on Aug. 29, 1996.

At a Baskin-Robbins ice cream store in Thousand Oaks, employees Eszter Takacs and Sarah Cochran said they were selling sundaes and cones as fast as they could scoop.

“They’re talking about the heat--how hot it is and how good the ice cream tastes,” Cochran said.

Air-conditioned rooms, room service and a swimming pool were the draw for others trying to avoid a meltdown, said Tiffany Talbot, an operator at the Doubletree Hotel in Ventura.

“We’ve had a lot of last-minute reservations,” she said.

In Ventura, the mercury rose to a civilized 86, prompting more than 3,000 people to flock to the beaches between San Pedro and California streets, Mark Thompson, a state lifeguard, said.

“We have quite a few people down here, but our lifeguards have been right on top of stuff,” Thompson said.

Several dozen verbal warnings were issued to swimmers headed out toward rip currents, but no major incidents were reported, Thompson said.

Widespread brownouts were reported in the afternoon in Thousand Oaks and Moorpark, the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department said. Several traffic signals in both cities were knocked out, but deputies reported no accidents.

Emergency personnel treated a heat stroke victim about 5 p.m. in Fillmore, the Ventura County Fire Department said.

Temperatures in the upper 80s were forecast for Ventura and Oxnard today. Saturday night’s low was expected to be 63 degrees.

“It’s going to be more of the same,” Hoffer said. “Very hot with record or near-record high temperatures.”

A slight cooling trend is predicted to start Tuesday, dropping coastal temperatures into the mid-70s and inland ones to the mid-90s.

A countywide heat advisory that started Saturday will remain in place through today. Hoffer said people should avoid prolonged exposure to heat and strenuous activity and wear light-colored, light-weight clothes. Children and animals should not be left inside cars, he added.