109 DEGREES; VALLEY RESIDENTS BEAT HEAT AT BEACH.Byline: Melissa Schmitt Daily News Staff Writer Forty degrees cooler, foggy in the morning and blessed with cool ocean breezes, Malibu was the destination of choice Tuesday for heat-beat residents in search of relief from another day of record, triple-digit temperatures across the Valley. From Zuma Beach to Topanga State Beach they found it: Temperatures dipped into the 60s with surf growing to 8 feet in Malibu. That combined to keep Los Angeles County lifeguards A division of the County of Los Angeles Fire Department, the Lifeguard operations safeguard 31 miles of beach and 70 miles of coastline, from San Pedro in the south, to Malibu in the north; Protecting about 55 million beach patrons annually. busy rescuing about 50 swimmers. On the San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. side of the Santa Monica Mountains The Santa Monica Mountains are a low transverse range in southern California in the United States. Geography They run for approximately 40 mi (64 km) east-west from the Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles to Point Mugu in Ventura County. , the heat wave continued, sending cars, air conditioners and utilities into overload. Record temperatures for the day struck Chatsworth and Lancaster, and the mercury soared well above 100 across the Valley as smog levels again were labeled unhealthful. And there is little sign of significant cooling until at least Friday, weather forecasters say. The highs in Woodland Hills are forecast for 100-plus today, when another unhealthful smog level is predicted, and Thursday. In Chatsworth, where the temperature Tuesday hit 109, breaking the record of 108 set last year, residents sought refuge in air conditioning air conditioning, mechanical process for controlling the humidity, temperature, cleanliness, and circulation of air in buildings and rooms. Indoor air is conditioned and regulated to maintain the temperature-humidity ratio that is most comfortable and healthful. , dreading any forays into the heat. ``It seems the same every day now,'' said Kevin Hueling, owner of Les Sisters Southern Kitchen in Chatsworth. ``It seems there are no degree of degrees anymore.'' From Burbank to Woodland Hills, temperatures Tuesday were 100-plus, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. the National Weather Service, with Newhall coming in the highest locally at 110. Van Nuys and Woodland Hills reached 106. So Valley residents went to the beach. ``It was so hot yesterday, I didn't even want to be outside. It's just sweltering swel·ter·ing adj. 1. Oppressively hot and humid; sultry. 2. Suffering from oppressive heat. swel . It just hits you like a wall,'' said Mission Hills resident Marie Ogilvie, who fled to Zuma Beach on Tuesday morning to avoid the heat. Ogilvie and Newhall resident Janet Thompson sat at the beach enjoying seviche se·vi·che n. Variant of ceviche. and a cool breeze. Both women wore shirts over their bathing suits. ``It's cool,'' Ogilvie said of the Malibu weather. ``But it can be freezing as far as I'm concerned.'' Sherry Grijalva, 31, of Granada Hills packed up her two daughters, Lydia, 5, and Rebecca, 4, before noon as well and headed for Malibu. All three said the coolness at the beach was a welcome relief. But things weren't all beachy keen in Malibu, where lifeguards pleaded with visitors to stay out of the water, explaining that the crushing surf and riptides presented a large danger to strong swimmers and surfers, and especially small children. One 4-year-old girl was standing in waist-deep water at Zuma when she was instantly sucked under the water and nearly drowned early in the afternoon, officials said. The child was pulled from the water by lifeguards, who were able to revive her before she was airlifted to UCLA Medical Center UCLA Medical Center is a hospital located on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles in Los Angeles, California. It is rated as one of the top three hospitals in the United States and is the top hospital on the West Coast according to US News & World Report. , according to county lifeguards. Minutes later at Malibu State Beach, a boat washed up, sending lifeguards and emergency personnel into a frenzy to find out whether anyone was on board. At Point Dume Point Dume is a point on the coast of Malibu, California. Point Dume forms the northern end of the Santa Monica Bay, and Point Dume Headlands Park affords a vista of stretching to the Palos Verdes Peninsula and Santa Catalina Island. , a swimmer suffered a spinal injury. By day's end, lifeguards had responded to an estimated 50 people in need, according to Jim According to Jim is an American situation comedy television series originally broadcast by ABC. The show premiered with little publicity in October 2001, following the surprise hit comedy My Wife and Kids. Doman, lifeguard captain at Zuma. A combination of Hurricane Estelle The name Estelle has been used for nine tropical cyclones in the Eastern Pacific Ocean.
Even though the hot weather pushed electricity usage, utilities fell short of record levels thanks to a conservation program awarding discounted utility bills to participants. Southern California Edison Southern California Edison (or SCE Corp), the largest subsidiary of Edison International (NYSE: EIX), is the primary electricity supply company for much of Southern California. It provides 11 million people with electricity. was able to prevent any widespread outages in its service territory, according to a company spokesman. MaryAnne Pierson, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) is the largest municipal utility in the United States, serving 3.9 million residents in 2006. It was founded in 1902 to deliver water and electricity supplies to residents and businesses in Los Angeles. , said there was high demand for electricity in the city, but there were plenty of reserves to handle it. She said, however, there were scattered outages in parts of the Valley on Tuesday that probably were triggered by the heavy use of electricity. Higher and higher The triple-digit highs Tuesday marked the 11th day in 1998 that temperatures hit or passed 100 degrees. West Valley - 109 degrees 11 - Number of days 100 or hotter this year 30 - Average number of days at or above 100 degrees in a year 63 - Most days at or above 100 degrees in a year (in 1984 and 1990) East Valley -- 100 degrees 5 - Number of days 100 or hotter this year 8 - Average number of days at or above 100 degrees in a year 21 - Most days at or above 100 degrees in a year (in 1979 and 1983) SOURCES: National Weather Service, Western Regional Climate Center. Daily News Staff Writer Lisa Van Proyen contributed to this report. CAPTION(S): 2 photos, 2 boxes PHOTO (1 -- color) Mary Beth and Wayne Hasselbrinck of Northridge take in ocean breezes Tuesday in Malibu. Tina Gerson/Daily News (2) Paramjit Singh keeps a damp towel on his head while working Tuesday at a Unocal gas station in Woodland Hills. Myung J. Chun/Daily News Box: (1) Higher and higher (see text) (2) The Outlook |
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