Record heat threatened crops, forced a desert water district to issue restrictions and sent hundreds of thousands of Southern Californians fleeing to beaches Tuesday as temperatures pushed past well into the 100s. The 112-degree high at the Los Angeles Civic Center was an all-time record for downtown, beating the previous record high of 110 degrees set on Sept. 4, 1988. Other areas that reached three digits were Woodland Hills with 112, Pacoima with 114, Ontario with 112, San Bernardino with 111, San Gabriel with 111, and Santa Barbara with 103. The deserts were even hotter. Palm Springs and Thermal recorded highs of 120, while Needles had a high of 119. The second day of high heat put firefighters on alert as brush already dry after four years of drought sat on hillsides shimmering in heat that dropped humidity below 10 percent. At least one brush fire was reported in the Sunland area northeast of downtown. The National Weather Service issued a heat advisory for inland orchards and vineyards in San Diego County, and growers said berry crops would be damaged immediately and some fruits could be lost if the heat continues. ``This is going to finish up the strawberries,'' said Ben Hillbrecht, a grower with about 200 acres near Escondido. ``And the boysenberries will cook right on the vine. We won't have any this year.'' He said the heat also will stop raspberry bushes from producing for about one month. Avocados have just appeared as tiny green buds, and Hillbrecht said if they don't get enough moisture, they may fall off. ``There are certainly some crops that are threatened, though at this moment we have seen no damage,'' said grower Jim Bathgate of Valley Center. He said fruits such as apricots and peaches still on the tree could be affected if the heat wave continues a few days, as the weather service has predicted. ``It won't help the water shortage, because everyone turns on their water to keep things as wet as they can,'' said Hillbrecht. In the Mojave Desert, the small Hi-Desert Water District in Yucca Valley announced use restrictions to begin Wednesday after the rural water company noticed an average six-to-seven foot drop in its wells. One well dropped 20 feet over the past six weeks. Irrigation will be limited to one day a week, and filling pools and washing cars at homes will be banned, along with water use for construction such as mixing concrete, Puffer said. The district serves about 5,200 customers. Not everybody was having a hard time with the heat wave. At Raging Waters, a 1.5-million-gallon water playground in San Dimas, Calif., business was also brisk, said spokeswoman Lynne Matallana. ``We love the hot weather. It encourages people to come out and visit us,'' she said. Hundreds of thousands of people headed to beaches, where temperatures were more than 20 degrees cooler than inland. Lifeguards reported nearly 100,000 at Santa Monica, 150,000 at Hermosa Beach and 40,000 at Zuma Beach in Los Angeles County.
