BIG BEAR LAKE >> Business was brisk Sunday at the North Pole.
People ordered cones and shakes inside the Big Bear Lake ice cream parlor, kept refrigerator-cool by a busy air conditioner. Sometimes the line went out the door onto the sidewalk.
The temperature, 83 degrees at noon, wasn’t brisk.
Except when you consider the alternative, which is what many people did when choosing to visit the lakeside city in the San Bernardino Mountains on a record-breaking hot day when Inland temperatures climbed to 100 degrees and kept going.
“When you’re down the hill, the kids can’t go out in the heat, and they get cabin fever,” said Corona resident Roxanne Laird, adding that it was 104 degrees when she started the drive up with her husband William and children Wyatt, 5 and Aubree, 2. “It’s not good for any of us.”
High-temperature records fell across Southern California setting recordsin Riverside, Thermal, Palm Springs, Indio, Idyllwild, Santa Ana, Ramona, Escondido, Chula Vista, Alpine, El Cajon, Palomar Mountain, Campo, Borrego, Burbank, Sandberg and Woodland Hills.
On Sunday, weather and health experts issued stern warnings for people to stay cool or face illness.
In the Inland valleys, the excessive heat warning lasts through Tuesday, but by then, some clouds should return and temperatures will start to fall. Tuesday’s highs should be 96-101, while winds could gust to 30 mph in the afternoon. The rest of the week, expect highs in the mid-90s.
Riverside and San Bernardino counties have more than 100 cooling centers for those without access to adequate air conditioning, or whose power goes out.
Expected triple-digit temperatures Monday and power outages due to Sunday’s heat prompted state regulators to issue a flex alert to cope with an increased electricity demand.
The alert – which will be in effect from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday – asks the public to turn off unneeded lights, set air conditioning to 78 degrees or higher and not use major appliances until 9 p.m. It also asks them to limit the opening and closing of refrigerator doors and shift power-intensive processes by businesses to the early morning or late evening hours.
By 5 p.m. Sunday, excessive heat had led to several Inland outages, Southern California Edison spokeswoman Maureen Brown said. Power went out for 244 people at 3:33 p.m. in the Sycamore Springs community of Riverside County, Edison’s outage map showed. More than 1,000 people were without power near Ganesha Park in Pomona about 5 p.m.
In the mountains, the Lairds were among many who stood lakeside just west of Pine Knot Landing, watching mallards float and spin while facing an evergreen-scented breeze coming off the water. Those breezes channeled down Pine Knot Avenue, where they tickled petunias, riffled skirts and swayed trees that shaded people eating ice cream.
Maria Negrete, a North Pole manager, said the shop is accustomed to busy summer days and stocks up accordingly.
“Even then,” she said, “sometimes it’s hectic.”
Next door at Saucy Mama’s Pizzeria, shortly before noon the wait for a patio dining table was already 45 minutes. Yet the pace on the street, which caters to shoppers as well as diners, was relaxed, the calm broken occasionally by rumbling processions of touring Harley Davidson motorcycles.
On the other side of Big Bear Lake, outside the Big Bear Discovery Center, Anna Lira of Ontario sat and picnicked with her daughter Karen Ascencio and her daughter’s eager 4-month-old Chihuahua-Shih Tzu mix, Princess.
The Big Bear Lake area is “a perfect place to bring your animals” on a hot day, Lira said.
Had they stayed home, they would have been confined indoors with the bouncy dog, she said.
“We thought about going to the beach, but we thought she could run around up here.”
The lake itself is a popular destination. Even with water levels receding due to drought conditions, motorboats made wakes and families set up base camps on sand beaches so children could swim close to shore. A parasailer soared above, sharing airspace with a fishing osprey.
At the visitor center, staffer Kim Ferguson said it’s always busy in summer. But she said she noticed many day-trippers Sunday, particularly from Palm Springs, where the temperatures hit 117 by 3 p.m.
She often points refugees from the heat to the Snow Summit Sky Chair.
“It’s a lot cooler at the top,” she said, and the lake views are beautiful.
As the afternoon progressed, Jae Murvine wasn’t looking forward to returning to Redlands and the work week. His future mother-in-law rented him and his fiance Kathleen Stark a cabin for the weekend so the expecting couple could escape the heat and take maternity photographs.
“I’ll be remembering this breeze for sure,” he said, standing lakeside beneath gathering clouds.