Aug. 17--The weekend heat wave sent more than 2 million visitors to Los Angeles County beaches as scorching temperatures slashed records across Southern California.
And what better way to cool down than nature's own air conditioner -- the ocean breeze? The Los Angeles County Fire Department's Lifeguard Division said 2,067,450 people (to be exact) headed to county beaches during the weekend.
After all, Southern California was hot, really hot. The sweltering heat in Palm Springs would have sent Elvis Presley's temperature rising. Temperatures hit 115 degrees there Sunday, tying a record set in 1994.
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More than 30 miles south in Thermal, residents were feeling the heat as temperatures reached 114 degrees. It was warm enough to tie a record set in 1992.
Riverside and Campo were a blistering 107 degrees, breaking records of 106 set it 1992 and 1962, respectively.
In Los Angeles County, four record highs were set Sunday. Long Beach was 96 degrees, topping the old record of 95 degrees in 1992. Sandberg, near Gorman, reached 99 degrees; the old record was 98 degrees in 1994.
Burbank hit 102 degrees, up 2 degrees from 1992 and 2000. And the hottest L.A. County city was Lancaster, where temperatures reached 108 degrees, up from 107 in 2002.
In Ventura County, Camarillo hit 87 degrees, tying a record set in 2000.
The scorching heat is expected to end Monday as cooler temperatures move into Southern California.
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