October 2015 will go down as the hottest October ever in most of Southern California, as the average high temperature was 4 degrees hotter than the previous hottest October.
A large pool of unusually-warm water off the Pacific Coast, called “the Blob” by climatologists, brought the warmest October nights to almost every nook and cranny of Southern California, a National Weather Service meteorologist said.
The warm water caused record high daytime readings along the coast. Unofficial readings of 95 degrees were recorded on two days at normally-cool Malibu.
The average high temperature last month at the official Downtown Los Angeles measuring station, at USC,was 75.6 degrees, 7 degrees warmer than the next-hottest October, back in 1983, which also was an El Nino year.
Twenty-five days last month saw highs of 80 or above at USC, which set another record. And on seven nights last month, the mercury downtown did not drop below 70, and yes, that’s another record.
At LAX, next to the Pacific Ocean, the average high was 74 degrees. That’s 8.1 degrees above the previous record October, in 1958.
Burbank was even hotter: its October average high was 76.2 degrees, 9.3 degrees above the record set in 1991.
The hot wave may be broken Monday, as a cold front brings chilly air and a chance of valley thunderstorms and mountain snow to Los Angeles County.