Warming Up for the Summer Season

After Tuesday’s rehearsal where temperatures hit the high 80s, weather experts predicted the mercury will climb well into the 90s today.

“What was limiting those high temperatures on Tuesday was an upper thin layer of clouds,” said Wesley Etheredge, a meteorologist with WeatherData, which provides forecasts for The Times. Today “a big upper-level ridge of high pressure will scour out those clouds andit’s expected to get into the 90s, Etheredge said.”

Temperatures in Anaheim and Santa Ana hit 87 on Tuesday. But we’ve seen hotter. The record for the date is 91 degrees, set in 1968, and even this year, temperatures reached 94 degrees on March 10. That broke the previous record of 82 degrees, set in 1982.

High heat is expected to remain through Thursday, with temperatures cooling slightly by Friday. During the weekend, high temperatures should drop back to the mid-80s, Etheredge said.

Electricity use was higher than normal but caused no problems, said Steve Hansen, a spokesman for Southern California Edison.

Although Tuesday’s hot and humid weather produced no record, Tom Velasquez, 22, a supervisor for a weed cleanup crew that toiled outdoors under hot sun along El Toro Road in Laguna Beach, had his crew take plenty of rest and water breaks.

Despite the heat, some crew members were garbed in long sleeves, pants and heavy work boots, to protect against mosquitoes, bees and rattlesnakes in the brush.

“If it’s not the heat, it’s always something else,” said crew member Ventura Carmona, 50, of San Clemente.