Heat – along with power outages – batters Southern California residents
A continuing heat wave battered Southern California, Saturday, July 7, bringing power outages, red flag warnings and flash flood warnings on top of triple digit heat in some areas.
Fires continued to burn in San Bernardino County, Goleta and Camp Pendleton while others broke out in Burbank and Granada Hills on Saturday afternoon.
Some cities, including Claremont, Pasadena and Riverside, reported triple digit temperatures by 9 a.m.
Palm Springs and Thermal had highs of 115 degrees about 5 p.m. Saturday. Van Nuys was 110 degrees in the afternoon and Riverside had reached 113 degrees.
Records for the date were set in several places including downtown Los Angeles (104 vs. the previous record of 96 degrees), Santa Ana (103 vs. the old record of 96), Woodland Hills (113 vs. the old mark of 110) and Riverside (113 degrees, beating the previous mark of 109 degrees).
As of 3 p.m. Saturday, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power said as many 32,800 customers had experienced power outages since the start of the heat storm on Friday.
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Of those affected, approximately 20,000 remained without power into Saturday, officials with the department said in an update.
Power outages also affected more than 18,000 Southern California Edison customers by 2 p.m., according to an outage map on the company’s website.
Marcia Saunders, 85, said her Newport Beach neighborhood of 178 town homes has been without power since 7 p.m., Friday, July 6. Saunders said her power was restored about 4:15 p.m., which was earlier than the 7 p.m. time officials had estimated.
Late Friday night, she cooled down by wrapping an ice pack in a hand towel and placing it around her neck, she said. To keep cool Saturday, she and her husband, 92, went to a gym in Corona del Mar with air conditioning, she said.
“We’re hydrating a lot by drinking a lot of cold water that is getting warmer from the refrigerator,” Saunders said. “We’re trying not to move a lot.”
David Godoy, 38, of Santa Ana took his four children to Memorial Pool, three blocks from his home. With an air conditioning unit at home that has not been operational, Godoy said the family tries to get out to the water when the heat rises.
“We just head to the local pool,” he said. “We’ve also got a season pass for Knott’s Berry Farm’s Soak City.”
Portions of Southern California were also under red flag warnings until 6 p.m. with reports of hot temperatures, low humidities and gusty onshore winds between 20 and 30 miles per hour.
“Due to the hot and unstable conditions expected today, there is the potential for very large vertical plume growth with any new fires, especially over the mountains and foothills,” the National Weather Service said in the warning.
Parts of Los Angeles and San Bernardino Counties were also under a flash flood warning until 4 p.m. due to the potential of thunderstorms in Big Pines and Wrightwood, as well as Phelan, Llan and Pinon Hills, according to Doppler radars.
Lightning struck a house and set it afire as thunderstorms developed over the San Gorgonio Pass on Saturday.
The high pressure system steering moisture over the area developed faster than usual because of the heat, the weather service said.
A cooling trend was expected in the region, according to the weather service, with the high in Los Angeles expected to be 93 degrees Sunday and 90 degrees Monday. Santa Ana was expected to experience a high of 94 degrees Sunday and 89 degrees Monday. Riverside’s highs were expected to be 104 degrees Sunday and 99 degrees Monday.