Thanksgiving brings record heat to Southland
BURBANK, Calif. (KABC) -- It wasn't just the turkeys that were roasting in Southern California on Thanksgiving.
The region experienced record-high heat for the holiday, in some areas reaching well into the 90s.
Downtown Los Angeles hit a high of 91, breaking the previous record for Thanksgiving of 90 set in 1903. Van Nuys and Fullerton, among other areas, hit a high of 93.
RELATED: Latest forecast for Southern California.
That affected the way many people celebrated the fall holiday.
Temple Beth Hillel, a Valley Village-based synagogue, held its 17th annual Feed the Hungry fest with umbrellas set up outdoors to protect guests from the blazing sun.
"A little shade really will assist on this beautiful hot day of Thanksgiving," said Rabbi Sara Hronsky.
Across the Southland, people found other ways to beat the heat - or enjoy it.
Brian and Paige Weissman went out for a morning hike in Fryman Canyon before the temperatures rose too much.
"We're fine with it because we're originally from Chicago and we had many years of cold Thanksgivings, so we were just saying how happy we are and feel blessed to be here," Paige Weissman said.
Indeed, the SoCal heat was a stark contrast to scenes back east, where people were bundled up against the early winter cold.
"That's' why we live here I think," said Nancy Gekare, also out for a morning walk at Fryman. "I post my pictures and my friends from the East Coast are like what? The weather's like that?"
The temps are expected to cool by the weekend, with highs in the 80s and dropping to the 70s next week.
The warm weather also put a damper on holiday trips to mountain resorts.
At Big Bear, people walked around in short sleeves amid temperatures in the 70s.
There was some snow at Big Bear Snow Play for inner tubing, thanks to last week's single-digit temperatures that allowed for some snow-making.
But other than that, most of the mountains were bare and some visitors from other parts of Southern California said the temperatures at the winter resort town weren't much different than the cities they came from.
