SUMMER'S HEAT OFF THE CHARTS MORE THAN 160 PEOPLE DIED DURING STATE'S FIERCE WEATHER.

Byline: DANA BARTHOLOMEW Staff Writer

Your sweat glands were right: The summer from hell that ended Friday was the hottest San Fernando Valley summer on record.

A Daily News analysis of summer temperatures at Pierce College's weather station -- generally the hottest in the Valley -- highlights the heat wave to beat all heat waves.

Combined averages for June, July and August totaled 79.57 degrees, the hottest summer in Woodland Hills' history.

``The heat was unbelievable,'' said Helmut Mucenieks, 61, of Woodland Hills, a Valley resident of 43 years walking a fluffy bichon frise named Powder. ``This was definitely the worst summer I ever encountered.

``I could hardly take my dog out -- took him out for five minutes and he would turn me around to go home.''

In July, mercury at the Woodland Hills station soared past 100 degrees for three weeks straight, a record. In all, temperatures shot above the 100- mark for 24 days, another record.

On July 22, temperatures at Pierce College topped out at a Sahara-like 119 degrees -- an all-time Los Angeles County record.

Worse, humidity levels rose to a swamplike 70 percent. And morning temps into the low 70s broke 10 more records.

``Proverbially speaking, the mercury busted through the top of the thermometer,'' said Jamie Meier, a National Weather Service meteorologist based in Oxnard. ``We shattered that glass in the heat.''

The Internet readout from the Pierce College weather station was so incredible that station director William H. Russell drove over to see it for himself.

``I was surprised, definitely,'' said Russell, a professor of meteorology and geology who has run the station since 1986. ``This was a phenomenal run ... That was what was unique about it.''

After a cooler-than-normal spring, the Valley was not alone in its torpor.

A humongous high-pressure zone stretching from British Columbia to Mexico helped make summer 2006 the second-warmest June to August in U.S. history.

In July, the blistering heat storm broke more than 2,300 national daily records and more than 50 all-time highs.

In California, the July heat wave killed more than 160 residents, primarily in the Central Valley and Inland Empire, mostly seniors without air-conditioned homes.

The heat also killed thousands of cows, cutting milk production by 15 percent.

With air conditioners humming throughout the state, more than 1 million utility customers lost power, largely because of equipment failures.

In Los Angeles, 79,303 residents lost power during one week in July, according to the Department of Water and Power, as 303 transformers fried from overload, mostly in the Valley. The peak power draw was a record 6,165 megawatts.

The heat wave, which broke July records from LAX to Woodland Hills, sent millions fleeing to air-conditioned malls, community pools and the beach.

That's where Pat Chelius had gone, returning just before the 119-degree Saturday in July that some are calling Death Valley Day.

``I'll never forget it,'' said Chelius, 64, of Woodland Hills. ``It was a killer. I couldn't believe it. I just thought, `I've lived here 31 years, (and) this is the most incredible, hot day I've experienced in the Valley.''

It was too hot to cook, she said. Too hot to watch TV. Too hot to exercise. Though she'd replaced her air conditioner, it was too hot to work effectively.

``I would shower and still feel hot and sticky. I washed my hair and that didn't last long because I was perspiring so profusely.

``It just didn't feel like the Valley -- it felt like Palm Springs or Texas.''

Sharyn Sanders thought the heat would never end. A condo resident near Warner Park, she watched her summer electric bills rocket from around $125 a month to $275.

Some of her neighbors got heat wave-related power bills of more than $400.

``Everyone pretty much sat inside with their A/C going 24 hours a day,'' said Sanders, 72, of Woodland Hills.

``It was hot as the dickens,'' said Johnny Brass, 16, a green-haired youth from Woodland Hills. ``It was hot as Fabio's back sweat.''

But not everyone minded the seasonal cauldron.

Enrique Rodriguez, owner of MB Motors in Reseda, repaired Mercedes-Benz cars in open bays all summer without missing a lug nut.

``The honest truth, I'm used to it,'' said the Spanish native and former resident of South Africa. ``We were fine. The heat I can handle.''

Though temperatures have cooled considerably since then, weather forecasters predict Santa Ana wind conditions this weekend, with highs in the 80s and lower 90s and winds from 25 to 35 mph, with gusts up to 50 mph.

While some forecasters predict that a potential El Nino could usher in warm, wet weather by spring, some climatologists aren't so sure.

Bill Patzert, climatologist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Canada Flintridge, predicted a cool, dry winter.

And more scorching summers for Los Angeles.

``In the Southland, it has gotten 5 degrees warmer in the last century because of all the development,'' Patzert said. ``So the chances of breaking temperature records are increasing.

``Add global warming, and we're looking at a hotter future.''

dana.bartholomew(at)dailynews.com

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2 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- 2 -- color) Smoke from the Day Fire, above, helps create a colorful sky as the sun sets over the 118 Freeway. Left, William Russell checks the Pierce College weather station. On the left is the new meterological data-collection station and on the right is the old station shelter.

Andy Holzman/Staff Photographer

Tina Burch/Staff Photographer

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Source: National Weather Service