DRIZZLE DAMPENS SOUTHLAND SIZZLE; MERCURY DIPS, RAIN FALLS AS L.A. HIT WITH UNSEASONAL WEATHER.

Byline: Eric Wahlgren and Lisa Van Proyen Daily News Staff Writers

Summer showers and soupy fog come with the territory in Seattle and San Francisco, but rain and cloudy skies in July in this typically sun-baked city have some Angelenos convinced that nature's climate control system is out of whack.

In the heart of summer when tourists and schoolchildren head for the beach, parts of Los Angeles on Tuesday were sprinkled with up to a quarter inch of rain and most of the area was blanketed by a thick marine layer.

With downtown Los Angeles logging a high of 78 degrees, Budapest, Copenhagen, Geneva, Helsinki, Moscow, Stockholm and Zurich are all logging higher temperatures - cities that rarely come to mind when discussing balmy weather.

As yet another sign that summer was taking a break, Kristen Philpott, a lifeguard at Malibu's Zuma Beach reported that at 64 degrees, the air along the coast was actually four degrees colder than the water.

Well to the north, in Lompoc, the Woodland Hills Little League All-Stars team had its sectional game against Hanford postponed Tuesday because of a steady drizzle. The game has been rescheduled for today at 5 p.m.

Meteorologists say the conditions are part of a normal summer weather phenomenon in Southern California caused by moisture-laden clouds blowing north from Mexico.

``This has happened year after year after year,'' said Rich Thompson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard. ``But if you live in Southern California, you expect summer to be warm and sunny. Naturally people aren't too happy with it.''

The forecast may provide some consolation, with the weather expected to clear up by this afternoon, leaving the Southland with mostly sunny skies and higher temperatures.

But that wasn't the story Tuesday, when the mercury in the city's downtown never climbed higher than a mild 78 degrees during a period when it can soar into the high 80s.

A record high of 98 degrees at the Civic Center for that date was reported in 1887, but Tuesday's temperature was by no means extraordinary. The lowest temperature ever logged was 52 degrees in 1880.

Chatsworth on Tuesday logged a high of 84 with the all-time record of 103 set in 1980, and the lowest temperature on the books of 50 degrees reported in 1965.

Woodland Hills had a high of 83 on Tuesday, Van Nuys came in at 82 and Burbank had a high of 81.

Joey Harsaghy of Seattle expected hotter weather during his travels in sunny Southern California, he said, as he threw a fishing line into Balboa Lake.

``It's kind of a bummer to be here when it's like this because California is suppose to be sunny. I expected it to be hotter,'' he said.

Across the city, this wavelet of lower temperatures that began Monday afternoon when the clouds rolled in prompted many residents to shut off their air conditioners, which this time of year often buzz away 24 hours a day.

Karen Shepard-Grimes, a spokeswoman for the Department of Water and Power, said there was a 10 percent decrease in electricity usage Tuesday.

This latest boat of cool weather comes from a phenomenon called ``monsoonal moisture,'' which occurs when a high-pressure system in America's Southwest pushes storm clouds from the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Mexico north, meteorologist Thompson said.

CAPTION(S):

Photo

Photo: Tom Vozza of Sun Valley relaxes with a cigar and book in the parking lot of the Encino Golf Course on Tuesday. After a brief break from the heat, summer skies are expected to return today.

Myung J. Chun/Daily News