Californians struggled to keep cool Thursday as temperatures again soared into triple digits and utility crews chased power outages amid a heat wave that was nearing its peak in the southern half of the state but just firing up in the north.
The temperature in downtown Los Angeles shot past 90 degrees early in the day and a spectator collapsed just as Mayor Eric Garcetti was about to start a late-morning ceremony to mark the reopening of the city's historic Angels Flight funicular railroad.
Garcetti came to the aid of the man, who appeared to recover but was taken away by paramedics.
Monsoonal moisture flowing into Southern California added another dimension to the torrid conditions, unleashing thunderstorms and a barrage of lightning bolts in interior areas.
Colton, a city of 53,000 about 60 miles east of Los Angeles, widely lost power when lightning struck its main electrical substation and full recovery was expected to take hours. In Los Angeles, the Department of Water and Power said 14,000 customers had outages overnight.
The temperature in downtown Los Angeles shot past 90 degrees early in the day and a spectator collapsed just as Mayor Eric Garcetti was about to start a late-morning ceremony to mark the reopening of the city's historic Angels Flight funicular railroad.
Garcetti came to the aid of the man, who appeared to recover but was taken away by paramedics.
Monsoonal moisture flowing into Southern California added another dimension to the torrid conditions, unleashing thunderstorms and a barrage of lightning bolts in interior areas.
Colton, a city of 53,000 about 60 miles east of Los Angeles, widely lost power when lightning struck its main electrical substation and full recovery was expected to take hours. In Los Angeles, the Department of Water and Power said 14,000 customers had outages overnight.