HEAT STORMS WAY INTO LOS ANGELES; WET WEATHER MAY RETURN BY WEEK'S END.

Byline: Eric Wahlgren Daily News Staff Writer

If El Nino had Angelenos questioning Southern California's fabled reputation as the land of perpetual sunshine, a heat wavelet continued Tuesday, bringing oh-so-blue skies and summery temperatures that seemed to melt those doubts right away.

``This is what we live here for,'' said Ida Jean Group, a self-described ``snowbird'' who spends winters in Sherman Oaks and summers in Manhattan, N.Y.

``We like having the nice weather back,'' said Group, who was whiling away the morning reading the newspaper with her husband, Herbert Group, at a sun-splashed picnic table in a Sherman Oaks park.

While much of the rest of the nation shivered in blizzards and rainstorms, the region logged its hottest day so far this year Tuesday with the mercury hitting a toasty 81 degrees at the Los Angeles Civic Center. Other communities were pretty summery, too, with a high in Glendale of 80 degrees; Woodland Hills, 78; Van Nuys, 82; Burbank, 79; and Malibu, 69.

Waterlogged from a record-breaking 13.68 inches of rain in February, residents got a dose of summerlike heat that made sidewalks shimmer and turned car steering wheels into finger-frying hazards.

Although Charlotte Flaherty was grateful for the break in storms, the Van Nuys resident said she was annoyed by the forecast that calls for temperatures at least two degrees hotter today.

``After all this rain, it's now the other extreme,'' said the child care worker, who was jogging in the Van Nuys-Sherman Oaks Park with a friend. ``It's too hot now. It's getting hard to exercise.''

The happy medium in the weather Flaherty and others might seek might not come for awhile - another storm is due by the end of the week, according to the National Weather Service.

NWS meteorologist Stuart Seto said a storm could dump about a half-inch of rain on the region late Thursday or early Friday.

``This is a moderate storm,'' Seto said. ``It would probably not even last a day.''

The balmy weather stems from a high-pressure system over much of the West that is keeping the skies clear and blocking offshore breezes from cooling down the temperatures, Seto said.

But now is probably not a good time to spring for that new bathing suit.

National weather experts warned not to interpret the mini-heat wave as a sign that El Nino, which has claimed lives and caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage across the state, is finished wreaking havoc.

``This is just a respite,'' said William Brown, a meteorologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Asheville, N.C. ``There is more on the way.''

Brown said California recorded its wettest month ever in February. And nationwide, Brown said January and February were the warmest and wettest months ever in the 104 years that NOAA has been tracking weather measurements in the contiguous United States. During these two months, the temperature across the United States averaged 37.5 degrees and rainfall averaged 6.01 inches.

Bob Byrnes, a Sherman Oaks resident who was sunning himself on a deck chair in the park, said he's just had it with El Nino.

``It's about time I could come out here,'' Byrnes said. ``When I heard the forecast, I split work early so I could come down to the park and finally get some sun.''

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2 Photos

PHOTO (1 -- 2) Above, Dick Morgan and his terrier, Suzy, take a walk in Tuesday's summerlike temperature at the Van Nuys-Sherman Oaks Park. At left, Alex Gray and his wife, Sue, picnic with their children, Wei-wei, left, and Benjamin.

Myung J. Chun/Daily News