Heat Wave Has Beach Dwellers Wishing For Air Conditioning

MANHATTAN BEACH (CBSLA.com) — Unusually hot weather in the South Bay's beach communities has many residents wishing for air conditioning -- a relatively rare commodity in the area.

Temperatures normally taper off near the beach, especially after sundown. But throughout this summer and during this month's heat wave, temperatures along the coast have been on par with what could be expected inland.

The high temperature in Manhattan Beach on Sunday was 94 degrees. Saturday's high temperature in Manhattan Beach was 98 degrees.

"That's unheard-of," Manhattan Beach resident Jessica Butler said. "That's craziness."

Butler and her family lived in the area for 13 years without air conditioning. After moving a couple years ago, they finally got AC.

"I really don't know any other families [in the area] that have air conditioning," Butler said.

Even so, families fortunate enough to have AC have put an inordinate amount of stress on the power grid.

Southern California Edison has blamed recent outages on the excess stress placed on the power grid when customers run their AC units all day.