SAN FRANCISCO -- The bitter cold air that has stalled over California triggered another wave of record lows early Wednesday with San Francisco matching a 32-year-old mark and Oakland, Los Angeles and Burbank among others setting new records, according to the National Weather Service.
The cold wave dropped temperatures to record-tying lows of 42 degrees in San Francisco and 32 in Sacramento and to a record cold of 39 in Oakland (former record 40 in 1976).
The lengthening cold snap also damaged more of the state's strawberry crop and was raising concerns about the health of homeless people.
"Last night was pretty bad," said Abby Taylor, spokeswoman for the California Strawberry Commission. "It's more damage to the fruit. It's another night of frost ... which means the next two to three weeks, the volume will be diminished."
About 50 percent of some growers' new crops in Ventura County northwest of Los Angeles were damaged, Taylor said. There are about 100 growers in that county, where about 4 million pounds of strawberries were harvested last week, she said.
Freeze warnings were posted overnight in the central and southern San Joaquin Valley as well as in southeastern California and frost warnings were common elsewhere.
In the high desert of north Los Angeles County, Lancaster was 15 degrees, two under the 1989 mark. Other records were 29 at Santa Maria in coastal Santa Barbara County, 33 at Burbank in San Fernando Valley and 41 at Los Angeles International Airport, besting a 1948 record.
The cold snap set in Sunday night -- and forecasters had little relief in sight.
"It's been rising a degree or so overnight, but it doesn't look like a big warmup is in store for us for awhile," said Ivory Small, forecaster for the National Weather Service.
Small said average overnight temperatures will remain in the 30s for most of California in the days to come. Beginning Sunday, he added, there's a 30 percent to 50 percent chance of rain in coastal regions.
Produce farmers, including those growing citrus and avocado, have used giant fans and irrigation the last couple nights to keep their crops from freezing. On Wednesday, industry watchers reported no damage to orange, lemon, grapefruit and avocado crops.
Social workers in some parts of California were concerned about a shortage of shelter beds for the homeless.
In Los Angeles County, about a dozen shelters on Wednesday provided an additional 2,000 beds for the homeless, but relief organizations were concerned thousands will be left in the cold.
Of the estimated 80,000 people homeless in the county, about 55,000 won't have shelter, said Siri Khalsa, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.
In San Francisco, 90 families were on the waiting list at Connecting Point, a relief organization which places families into four shelters it operations, said program director Juan Ochoa. He said families typically wait about two months until space is available.
Dozens of people seeking shelter have been turned away in recent days at Father Joe's Villages Shelter in San Diego, which has 930 beds.
"They cannot access our services because we simply don't have the beds," said shelter spokesman Mark Tsuchiya.
Copyright 2005 by KTVU.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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