Heat brings people to beach in West, while other regions clean up

Associated Press

SAN DIEGO

John Larson sat on a blanket on a Southern California beach, furiously posting videos on Facebook of his sons jumping in the waves and bracing for the expletives from friends in Buffalo, N.Y.

It was 5 below zero when Larson and his sons left this weekend for their trip to San Diego, where a heat wave sent temperatures into the mid-80s Tuesday.

“Oh yeah, they hate me,” he said of the response he got to his beach posts. “I get quotes like, ‘Jerk!’”

Beaches in Southern California were crowded after the holiday weekend saw record-breaking heat from Los Angeles to San Diego, while the East Coast and the South cleaned up from a deep freeze and tornadoes.

It was even hotter in Phoenix: Tuesday’s high topped out at 87 degrees, which broke the previous record of 84 set in 2014.

The National Weather Service is forecasting a high of 90 degrees today in what would be the earliest 90- degree day on record for the desert city.

Millions along the East Coast, meanwhile, still were shivering from freezing temperatures.

A treacherous mix of snow, sleet and freezing rain caused car crashes from the Mid-Atlantic states through Pennsylvania to northern New England on Tuesday, a day after twisters tore through parts of the South.

At least three deaths were reported on slick roads, all in Virginia, and thousands were left without power from weather-caused outages.

Down South, people combed through the wreckage after a big storm system turned several homes to rubble Monday in the northwest corner of Florida’s Panhandle and in Mississippi.