AHH, COOLER TIMES AHEAD:HEAT WAVE WANING; 'PLEASANT' DAYS COMING

Mother Nature finally kicked it down a notch Monday and cooler temperatures

were forecast for today and the rest of the week.

The National Weather Service in Monterey predicted a high of 86 degrees for

Santa Rosa today -- a full 12 degrees cooler than the high of 98 Monday and a

relative cold snap compared to 100-plus temperatures over the weekend.

In some cases the trend will offer only symbolic relief. AccuWeather.com,

which provides weather data for The Press Democrat, is predicting a

four-degree drop in Middletown today -- but that's still 109. Triple digits

should be common today across northern Sonoma County and in Lake and Mendocino

counties.

But the entire North Bay region should experience cooling conditions this

week as the massive high-pressure system that made for an unwelcome visitor

finally packs up and heads east.

''It's going to be pretty pleasant, actually,'' meteorologist Dave Soroka

predicted Monday. A note of caution for Santa Rosans: AccuWeather.com is a bit

more pessimistic, predicting 92 degrees today.

The break can't come quickly enough as energy supplies were maxed out again

Monday and box fans were as hard to find as Republicans at a Dixie Chicks

concert.

Employees at stores in Santa Rosa, Windsor, Petaluma and Healdsburg said

they were plum out of fans, as well as air conditioners, patio misters and

kiddie pools.

By midmorning Monday, about 100 people had called Home Depot in Rohnert

Park to inquire about fans and air conditioners only to learn they were out of

luck.

''Nobody's cussing yet, but I'm expecting that this afternoon,'' said

employee Arthur Clark, who directs customer calls.

An employee at Home Depot in Windsor said the company may not restock fans

or air conditioners because it's the ''end of the season.''

That came as a surprise to Doug McClung, assistant manager at Garrett's Ace

Hardware in Healdsburg, who said new shipments could arrive as early as today.

''What we try to do is take care of our community,'' McClung said. ''We

know the hot weather is not over. We know it's just beginning.''

As uncomfortable as recent days have been, however, the hot spell has not

been as unrelenting as in years past.

Santa Rosa's consecutive 100-plus days Saturday and Sunday have been

equaled nine times in the month of July since 1905.

There have been six three-day spells of triple digits in the month of July

in the past century, as well as one spell each of four, five and six days.

''The Mercury Went A Soaring Here,'' read the Press Democrat headline on

July 8, 1905, after six record-breaking days of 100-plus temps.

The same issue reported that raspberry, loganberry and blackberry crops had

been destroyed by the blazing sun.

A century later, July temperatures in Santa Rosa have mostly been above

average the entire month. The good news is that temperatures have been above

100 degrees only two days so far.

''It's not something people are going to write too many dissertations

about,'' said Diana Henderson, a forecaster with the National Weather Service.

Soroka said the high-pressure system behind the hot weather is moving out,

allowing sea breezes to come back in. He said the fog probably will stick

mostly to the coast, however.

It was a different story elsewhere around the state Monday.

With temperatures across California climbing into the triple digits again

Monday after record-breaking weekend highs, state and local authorities were

investigating at least 13 deaths in the sweltering Central Valley.

State officials were investigating a Stockton nursing home for possible

negligence after a patient died when the air conditioner gave out in the

115-degree weather. They also were looking into the death of a gardener who

collapsed on the job in Bakersfield.

Operators of the state power grid issued a Stage Two Emergency, in which

businesses reduce their power usage in exchange for lower rates, and warned

that rolling blackouts could be possible if energy consumption didn't slow.

Monday's demand pushed electricity use to a peak of 50,270 megawatts -- a

record for California but still short of the 52,000 megawatts experts had

predicted. That eclipsed the most recent record, set on Friday, of 49,036

megawatts.

A PG&E spokesman predicted the company would have enough energy supplies to

avoid major problems in Sonoma County, where about 400 customers were without

power.

''Even though we have enough supply to meet demand, conservation is

urged,'' PG&E spokesman Brian Swanson said.

His advice included turning the thermostat up to 80 degrees unless

prevented by health problems from doing so and not using major appliances

between 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.

His other suggestion -- using fans instead of air conditioners -- may be

harder to follow.

''We don't have anything like that,'' an employee at Wal-Mart in Rohnert

Park said Monday, reflecting a dearth of cooling devices across the county.

Meanwhile, power companies continued to work to restore electricity to

thousands of customers who lost power in the heat.

PG&E reported about 118,000 customers without power, from Bakersfield in

the south to Eureka on the North Coast.

The Bay Area was hardest hit, with about 81,000 without power, primarily in

the San Jose area and the East Bay.

PG&E's Swanson said most of the losses were caused by equipment and

transformer failures, rather than a lack of supply.

In Los Angeles, about 20,000 Department of Water and Power customers

remained without electricity. Complicating the repairs, workers were having

difficulty rerouting power while they fixed overloaded transformers.

''If you can just run the air conditioner and not anything else. ... Turn

the TV off. Maybe not run the washer and dryer at the same time,'' agency

spokeswoman Kim Hughes said.

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Press Democrat researcher Teresa Meikle and the Associated Press

contributed to this report. You can reach Staff Writer Derek J. Moore at

521-5336 or dmoore@pressdemocrat.com.