Record heat, strong winds bake and dry
Baseball fans were heading to Dodger Stadium for the first game of the World Series Tuesday as temperatures in downtown Los Angeles hit a recordbreaking 103 degrees by early afternoon.
LOS ANGELES — Baseball fans were heading to Dodger Stadium for the first game of the World Series Tuesday as temperatures in downtown Los Angeles hit a recordbreaking 103 degrees by early afternoon.
The day started out extra hot and dry as winds, known as the Santa Anas, kept overnight temperatures in the 80s and 90s in some areas following a siege of triple-digit heat on Monday. Relative humidity levels also stayed low, leaving vegetation susceptible to fire.
Downtown Los Angeles passed the date’s 108-year-old record of 99 degrees before midday and by early afternoon was at 103 degrees.
Craig Digure, 46, who has lived in Los Angeles for 11 months, found it was just too hot sun himself at Echo Park Lake near downtown.
“It’s kind of crazy. I’m from Minnesota so I’m not used to this in October. It’s 40 degrees back home, almost ready to snow,” he told the AP. “I thought summer was over. But it’s just not seeming to end.”
Even proximity to the ocean was no relief: Surfing mecca Huntington Beach also surpassed 100 degrees.
Southern California firefighters scrambled to put out small fires before withering Santa Ana winds could whip them into conflagrations as a fall heatwave roasted the region.
Los Angeles fire crews jumped on several small fires that erupted along the north edge of the city as gusts blasted through nearby mountains. One fire brought morning rush hour traffic to a halt on the State Route 118 freeway until it was extinguished.
About 50 miles to the east Riverside County crews aided by helicopters battled a lumber yard fire that spread over several acres. Also in the inland region, a wind-driven fire disrupted traffic near the interchange of State Route 210 and Interstate 15.
The strong offshore winds were being caused by unseasonably strong surface high pressure over western Montana and a trough of low pressure along the California coast, the National Weather Service said.
As air flowed from the interior of the West and across Southern California, some gusts were hitting 60 mph (96 kph), the service said.
An updated forecast raised expected temperatures for the first game of the World Series at Dodger Stadium by a few degrees. The weather service said it would be 100 degrees at 4 p.m., dipping just a bit to 97 at game time and still a warm 82 at 8 p.m.
“It will be hot! Bring lots of water to the game,” the weather service tweeted.
Many schools were put on short-day schedules because of the high heat.
Santa Ana winds can occur any time of year in Southern California but are common in the fall. They have been involved in some of the most destructive wildfires that have hit the region because of the high wind speeds and extreme dryness.