Relief From Heat Due as the Weekend Nears

Temperatures will gradually start cooling down leading into the weekend after the longest hot spell of the year, forecasters say.

The high temperature at Lindbergh Field went from 80 degrees Sunday to 82 Monday and down to 81 Tuesday, said meteorologist Wilbur Shigehara of the National Weather Service.

As “the high pressure which popped up and brought us these warm temperatures weakens, it will allow the onshore flow to increase,” Shigehara said. “The coastal clouds will come rolling back in, and we’ll see more night and morning fog.”

After the end-of-summer weather fireworks, the clouds and fog may be a welcome sight, he said. Temperatures will moderate, with more seasonal weather returning by Thursday, he said. Temperatures will drop by 3 to 5 degrees and cool even more by the weekend.

The three-day period was the longest heat spell this year, Shigehara said. On Aug. 12, the mercury climbed to 94 at Lindbergh Field but the scorcher lasted only a day.

On Tuesday, “we would have had to get up to 99, which was set in 1978, to hit any kind of record,” Shigehara said.

The normal temperature for this time of year gets up to 77 degrees and “81 is not too far away from where we’re supposed to be,” Shigehara said. After a cool summer, “I guess we’re just not used to it.”

In El Cajon, where the mercury peaked at 99, ice cream scoopers at the Baskin-Robbins store in the Parkway Plaza faced an afternoon rush as customers sought relief.

“We definitely had an increase in sales,” Tashia Twardy said. “People really started coming in about 1 o’clock and ordering shakes and single scoops of ice cream.” It got so busy, she said, “I had to walk to (a market) to get some (more) bananas.”

High temperatures around San Diego County ranged from a relatively mild 78 at Oceanside Harbor to 107 at Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. Elsewhere, Alpine recorded a 96; Chula Vista, 83; Del Mar, 81; Escondido, 98; Fallbrook, 101; La Mesa, 95; Miramar, 88; National City, 91; Poway, 99, and Vista, 96.

As temperatures soared, San Diego lifeguards reported a turnout more like an early-summer weekday than the first full day of fall.