L.A. BASKS AMID HIGHEST TEMPERATURES IN AMERICA.

Byline: Dana Bartholomew Staff Writer

Call it the luck of geography. Call it the local feng shui fervor. Whatever. Los Angeles glowed beneath the sunniest skies in the nation Wednesday as other cities froze.

Santa Ana winds pushed the mercury near record levels during a continuing heat wave that sparked brush fires near Chatsworth, Temecula and San Diego County and ignited ``red flag'' fire warnings across the Southland.

While a high of 11 below zero froze tails in Fryeberg, Maine, the coldest city in the country Wednesday, San Gabriel and Santa Ana took high honors at 85 degrees - 20 degrees above normal as temperatures soared toward the coast.

Records were also broken or tied at Los Angeles International Airport (82), Oxnard (82), Santa Barbara (78) and San Luis Obispo (80).

To catch unseasonal rays, Los Angeles residents doffed jackets, donned shorts, lowered convertible tops and flocked to the beach, the park, the zoo, the sidewalk - and the city's iciest sunspot.

``It's really fun: You can't do this anywhere else,'' said Woodland Hills resident Jessie Hall, 12, as she skated around the Iceplex at Universal CityWalk, which was puddling in the intense heat.

``It's great to skate in 80-degree weather. I wish it'd snow, because it never snows in Southern California.''

While the San Fernando Valley enjoyed summer highs Wednesday, temperatures are expected to drop slightly today with no wind.

By Friday, residents can expect highs in the 70s and lows in the 30s and 40s, said National Weather Service meteorologist Bonnie Bartling.

The national highs this week in Simi Valley and other Southland spots are the result of a high pressure zone above Utah that sent hot winds whipping Wednesday through the mountains at 55 miles per hour toward the coast, Bartling said.

Temperatures on the sand were as hot as the Valleys as the Santa Anas slowed to between 25 and 30 miles per hour in some areas Wednesday.

``Aren't the Santa Anas nice?,'' Bartling said. ``I love it.''

Meanwhile, winds frizzed hair, inflamed allergies and hampered drivers. One trailer overturned on the Ventura Freeway in Agoura Hills, frustrating morning rush-hour commuters trapped in a backup that extended for miles.

Winds kicked up a grass fire that ignited after 3 p.m. near the Chatsworth Reservoir. The fire burned one acre of brush before Los Angeles city and county firefighters had it under control in 30 minutes.

A Los Angeles city fire engine from Reseda Station No. 73 was also sent south to help firefighters extinguish a 5,500-acre blaze near Alpine, 30 miles from San Diego, which started before dawn Wednesday.

The fire, which was not contained by nightfall, burned at least four homes, closed an 11-mile leg of Interstate 8 and forced at least 300 residents to flee the area.

In Temecula, a brush fire that started before noon charred between 50 and 100 acres and threatened four homes and was still burning out of control by nightfall.

Though hot winds hampered firefighters, they didn't hurt the Los Angeles Zoo, which has been on generator power since a mainline electrical failure Friday.

Generators powering heaters to the monkey, snake and tropical bird cages have been cut back slightly because of the heat, zoo officials said.

``It helps during the day,'' Los Angeles Zoo spokeswoman Lora LaMarca said. ``This probably could be a lot worse if it was cold right now.''

While zoo attendance was up 30 percent, beach attendance from Venice to Santa Monica to Zuma also saw an increase, with many tourists from out of state.

``It's just like summer,'' said Zuma lifeguard Don Olson. ``It's a good crowd today . . . for the middle of winter.''

The opposite was true for Southland ski resorts. Though the weather was cold and dry Wednesday, ski resorts at Kratka Ridge and Wrightwood both still awaited snow while lifts in Big Bear were working with man-made powder.

With temperatures posted at 38 degrees in Charlotte, N.C., and 43 degrees in Charleston, S.C., roughly in the same latitude as Los Angeles, postal workers were grateful Wednesday to walk L.A. beats.

``I'm glad I'm working here,'' said Gonzalo Deleon, 37, a mailman in Reseda in shirtsleeves and shorts. ``It's supposed to be 80 degrees today.

``Nice.''

Staff Writer Orith Goldberg contributed to this story.

CAPTION(S):

chart

Chart: LOS ANGELES' WINTER HEATSTROKE 

SOURCE: National Weather Service and Accu/Weather

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