Dennis RomeroYou can officially mark the 2013 holiday season as one that saw a historic heatwave in Southern California. Maybe you'll tell your grandchildren about it someday.
Today, Downtown Los Angeles set a record high temperature of 85 degrees, beating 1947's 83. Not only that, but the National Weather Service actually recorded temps as high as 90 degrees in L.A. County.
In late December. Really:
An NWS station in the hills above Malibu recorded 90 degrees, service meteorologist Todd Hall told us. That's an unofficial reading, but it's an impressive one nonetheless.
Tentative readings showed that Long Beach also set a record high with an 84, beating 1972's 78, he said. Woodland Hills appears to have set an all-time high too: Its 85 today broke the 80 recorded in both 1956 and 1963, Hall said.
Burbank tied its 1956 record of 84; UCLA tied its 1947 record of 83, according to the NWS' preliminary data for the day. A final tally will be released at 5 p.m.
Hall explained that the high pressure system over the area that generated Christmas warmth stuck around, even though forecasters originally said it would mellow out.
Credit: Brent Goldman/LA Weekly Flickr pool
Not only that, but after a weak low pressure system brings 5- to 10-degree cooling and some strong Sunday winds this weekend, high pressure should return, according to Hall:
It could bring us another week of record heat. “We could see additional records fall,” Hall said.
So during the New Year's Day Rose Parade in Pasadena, which will be broadcast across the nation, America could be looking at a Colorado Boulevard basking in 80-degree sunshine.
Hall:
Right now I would say for anyone coming from the East Coast where it's been very cold, it's going to be nice and warm here.
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