Simi Valley Hits Record 100 Degrees

SIMI VALLEY — It’s late October, right?

It sure didn’t feel that way in Simi Valley on Thursday, where the mercury rose to 100 degrees, shattering a decade-old record of 90 set in 1983.

“It was so hot even the lizards had sun block on,” Simi Valley Police Lt. Rex Jones joked.

The triple-digit weather sent residents scrambling for swimming pools, air conditioning and anywhere else that was cool.

At Foster Freeze on Royal Avenue, the sunbaked and the sweaty lined up for cones and shakes all day, owner Ed Wellman said. “We had 40 more people than normal.”

Thursday’s unseasonable weather was the third time in a month that the city has sizzled. On Sept. 30, it was 105 degrees, which amazingly wasn’t a record, and a day earlier the high was 101, which was a record.

Relief is in sight, though, according to the National Weather Service in Oxnard.

Temperatures in the valleys are forecast to be in the low 90s today, and coastal cities were expected to top out in the high 70s. Lows throughout the county will be in the mid- to upper 50s.

“It’s not unusual for it to be hot this time of year, but this seems to be pretty persistent. The heat just hasn’t let up a lot,” said Bruce Rockwell, a federal meteorologist.

Rockwell said a hot, high-pressure system off the coast was keeping the sea breezes offshore, which was fueling the high inland temperatures.

There were no other records set in the county Thursday, but it was 96 degrees in Thousand Oaks, 82 in Oxnard and 76 at Point Mugu.