K.C. ALFRED / Union-Tribune
Gabby Clippinger let Mitchell Carlin have it with a spray bottle as the 6-year-olds tried to keep cool yesterday on the infield at the Del Mar Racetrack.
Posted on 07/24/2006 4:44:18 PM PDT by Toidylop
Blistering heat broiled the county yesterday, breaking all-time records, testing the power system and sending weary souls in search of air conditioning.
“This is the hottest it's ever been, and I'm a native,” said Maria Dorsey of Mission Valley as she attended a firefighting exhibition at Qualcomm Stadium, where visitors looked as though they had just stepped from the sauna.
K.C. ALFRED / Union-Tribune
Gabby Clippinger let Mitchell Carlin have it with a spray bottle as the 6-year-olds tried to keep cool yesterday on the infield at the Del Mar Racetrack.
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Triple-digit temperatures broke records countywide, with all-time highs of 113 degrees in El Cajon; 112 in Escondido; and 114 at the Wild Animal Park. Records for July 22 were broken at Lindbergh Field, 99 degrees; Vista, 106; Alpine, 109; and Campo, 108. La Mesa tied its all-time record of 109 degrees.
In Oceanside, a record of 79 was tied at the harbor, but just a few miles inland, at Oceanside Municipal Airport, it was 94.
Yesterday afternoon, 61 power outages across the county left 44,000 customers without service. By 10:45 p.m., 18,500 customers were without power, according to San Diego Gas & Electric spokesman Peter Hidalgo. The county's electricity usage hit an all-time high of 4,502 megawatts at 2:45 p.m., up from a peak of 4,163 megawatts Friday.
“It's kind of like if you had a toaster you used a lot and it shorted out,” Hidalgo said. “It's truly due to excessive heat.”
Crews were racing to restore service by the end of the day.
“We're working as quickly as possible,” Hidalgo said.
In Northern California, a major power plant tripped off line as temperatures climbed, trimming electricity reserves to below acceptable levels and prompting the state's grid manager to declare a Stage 1 emergency and urge conservation.
Temperatures smashed records across California yesterday.
In San Francisco, the mercury reached 87 degrees, topping a record of 81 degrees set in 1917, according to the National Weather Service. Emergency workers in Los Angeles scrambled to help heat-exposure victims downtown, where 99-degree temperatures broke the 96-degree record set in 1960.
Records also were set or tied in the Central Valley: 109 degrees in Sacramento, 111 in Redding, and 112 in Red Bluff, Stockton and Modesto.
People packed San Diego County beaches, keeping lifeguards busy yesterday. At Mission Beach, guards conducted a mass rescue involving 12 people, lifeguard spokesman Dave Rains said.
“We're on edge,” Lifeguard Lt. Nick Lerma said. “We're trying to get to the end of the day without a major incident or having somebody lose their life.”
San Diego lifeguards reported 230 rescues and 1,511 warnings during the day and estimated there were 264,800 people on the beaches. Medics rescued hikers in Ramona, Mount Helix and from the trail at the Torrey Pines Gliderport. Several people at the Over-The-Line Tournament on Fiesta Island suffered from heat exhaustion and were taken to hospitals.
Why so hot? A massive zone of high pressure is covering the western United States. Wind circulating around the center of the zone is sucking in moisture from the Gulf of Mexico.
This monsoonal flow brings humidity and pushes hot, desert air west over the mountains.
“This doesn't happen very often, but when it happens, it's pretty interesting,” said National Weather Service forecaster Philip Gonsalves.
JOHN GASTALDO / Union-Tribune
Shawn Hamilton (right) of Richmond sweltered yesterday at Chollas Lake Park as he visited with family, including his cousins Najee (left) and Sedric Clark.
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“If we don't get another big surge, we could be talking the difference of 10, 15 degrees. But the way it looks right now, it's still going to be a hot day,” Gonsalves said. And that goes for tomorrow, too.
The week will continue to be hot, with a chance of thunderstorms in the mountains and deserts.
The weather service issued an excessive-heat warning yesterday, and an excessive-heat watch for today, likely to be upgraded to a warning. Both levels of caution use the same criteria: when the heat indexes, or the combined effects of temperatures and humidity, reach 110 degrees in the valleys and lower mountain slopes and 120 or more in the deserts. A watch is issued in advance; the warning comes when conditions prove the watch was warranted.
In some areas yesterday, the day started out deceptively. Rain drenched University City, Rancho Bernardo and Otay Ranch. But soon the sun was beating down, the temperatures climbing.
By 1 p.m., Lindbergh Field hit 99 degrees and El Cajon reached an all-time high of 113.
Later in the afternoon, thunderstorms struck south of Tijuana, and short bursts of rain wet some East County areas.
The heat came on fast. At Chollas Lake, in the cool, early morning, there were joggers. By midmorning, most people were walking.
City buses and trolleys were stifling. One passenger said the air conditioning wasn't working in two of the three trains he took to work. People tried to open the windows but couldn't.
“The air conditioning is working on the trolleys but the hotter it is, the more difficult it is to keep them cool,” said Metropolitan Transit System spokeswoman Judy Leitner.
The hot air rushes in, and the cool air out, each time the trolley doors open.
At San Diego's St. Vincent de Paul Village, which operates a year-round shelter downtown, people crowded into the lobby. Many were homeless and seeking what little refuge they could find from the sun and heat.
“We have a lot of people in the lobby drinking water,” said Patricia Reinhardt, an information and referral specialist.
“They rest in here to get out of the heat. We have a 15-minute time limit. They can't stay all day.”
Others found the relief they needed at the Central Library on E Street downtown. “We are rather crowded today,” said Tony DiLullo, who works the front desk. “The first-floor air conditioning is running well, but the second-and third-floor air conditioning is not.”
Guess where most of the people were.
Staff writer Lola Sherman and The Associated Press contributed to this report.Elizabeth Fitzsimons: (619) 542-4577; elizabeth.fitzsimons@uniontrib.com
Janine Zuniga: (619) 498-6636; janine.zuniga@uniontrib.comMichele Clock: (619) 593-4964; michele.clock@uniontrib.com|
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50201 |
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50538 |
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Information is current as of 24-Jul-2006 16:20. If browser does not support auto refresh, select reload. | |
Geez, oh Pete. It's July. There are always record breaking temperatures somewhere, either high or low.
It's just their turn.
I remember when my younger daughter was born. We moved into a new house with no AC. It got to 104 for 4 days. At one point, the baby, her older sister and I just passed out in the lowest level of the house. I woke up and thought we all had a heat stroke.
This will all stop in the fall.
Won't SOMEONE please take algores advice and become "carbon-neutral" and turn your AC's off?! You people are killing our planet!!!! /sarc
My AC or over my dead cold fingers!!! :)
And this guy speaks for the electric company...
Those of us who live within sight of the ocean don't have AC. It's been pretty miserable, even for an old Midwesterner like me.
AC is a luxury. I work outdoors in this heat in Florida. Fortunately, I usually have a seabreeze blowin in. I keep my AC set at 82 and even that gets "chilly" once I cool down. It's just a matter of getting acclimated.
You don't need AC in San Diego for most part of the year. Fortunately, new houses in San Diego just come with AC, that we rarely use, but it now comes in very handy :)
I'm certain the enviro-wackos are minding their carbon footprint and are not turning their AC on.
I just wonder if Petco Park is any better... Ah, football is not in season yet, is it? I haven't not invited anybody :) My home AC going full blast for the last 3 days (only set at 80deg) but it feels much cooler since it's dry air.
To me it's heaven - warm breezes, no frigid cold to deal with when coming in from outside.
It's very pleasant - WITH CEILING FANS. Why doesn't everyone do this instead of having their houses at 72 degrees and paying enormous power bills?
..Spent a week baking in an oven!!..literally!
I'm a longtime Floridian, but we have AC here, most everywhere.
In Northen California they pride themselves in not needing AC....
...they actually rent nice, modern apartments without AC!!!!!!
I know, because my son lives in one....it was beyond hot!---I kept wet wash clothes in the freezer!....The stores were selling out of fans!
Natives kept saying....'it doesn't get this hot here'....
..Well, it does, and it did!...The day I left it was suppose to be 102!!!!!
Supposedly, next Sunday Northern California should drop a good 20 degrees....to the 70's again.
Supposedly!
Screw the fuc_er's drill, drill, drill and build more power plants. If you insist on allowing 20million illegal invaders into this third world country then you liberals must also provide for them. Drill, drill, drill, and build build, build more power plants from the refineries that you haven't build in over thirty years
A San Diego misery~loves~company bump!
A friend of ours is friends with a retired general, who was told last week by
an officer friend of his in Iraq that it's been a whopping 139 degrees over there.
They have to cover themselves with wet towels and try to find a fan.
I have ceiling fans. I find them worthless in this kind of heat. They just move the hot air around. I want COOL air, so I don't mind if a few beavers die to keep me (and my beer) nice and chilly.
Well it was 108 here today. I don't think a few ceiling fans (which I have in every room) would make much of a difference.
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