LOS ANGELES As a historic heat wave left Southern California broiling, Los Angeles’ Woodland Hills section on Sunday recorded an all-time high of 121 degrees, which the National Weather Service said was the hottest temperature recorded at an official weather station in Los Angeles County.
It broke the old record of 119 degrees set in July of 2006 and was one of several records to fall on Sunday. The NWS said Riverside hit its highest temperature ever for September at 117 degrees; Santa Ana hit a record high for the day at 106.
Escondido achieved an all-time high of 115 degrees, shattering a record set in 1909. Paso Robles also hit an all-time high at 117, as did Idyllwild (104) and Chino (121).
Woodland Hills is one of the hottest parts of Los Angeles and often records extreme temperatures. But the 121 degree reading taken at Pierce College marked the highest temperature from an official NWS station from not only L.A. County but also Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties.
In some areas, Sunday was even hotter than Saturday, where the mercury hit historic levels in some areas. Officials said at least three areas tied or topped all-time record highs Saturday: Alpine (113), El Cajon (114) and Idyllwild (103). The weather service said Burbank appeared to tie an all-time record at 114 degrees.
A slight cooling trend should begin Monday. Even though areas could see temperatures drop by 10 degrees, many locations will remain in the triple digits.
Officials, meanwhile, are warning of possible rolling blackouts because of demand on the power supply brought on by the heat.
The California Independent System Operator, which runs the electric grid for much of the state, declared a Stage 2 Emergency on Saturday night and warned it could order utilities to institute rotating power outages.
But shortly after 9 p.m. Saturday, the body announced the emergency had been lifted with no outages necessary, crediting consumer energy conservation.
Still, the ISO said that rolling blackouts could be necessary Sunday, most likely between 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. The body was forecasting peak demand to outpace supply by about 4,000 megawatts. That could force utilities to cut off power to 2.5 to 3 million customers statewide, Eric Schmidt, vice president of operations for California ISO, said Sunday in a news briefing.
The ISO was urging consumers to conserve energy, particularly during the peak demand time of 3 p.m. and 6 p.m.
“I think it’s fair to say that without really significant conservation and help from customers today that we’ll have to have some rolling outages,” Schmidt said. “So this is really an appeal for people to help us out to get through what will prove to be a very, very difficult day.”
Thousands lost power Saturday across the region as the demand caused by the heat strained the system. Both the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and Southern California Edison reported scattered but small power outages.
