Hot for peace: Antiwar protests, Chavez rally unscathed by blistering weather

<www.santacruzsentinel.com/archive/2003/March/31/local/stories/01local.htm>

March 31, 2003
By RAMONA TURNER
Sentinel staff writer

Mother Nature seems to be a tad confused.
During the winter months, she was concocting springtime weather. Now that it’s spring, she’s making it feel like summer.
People rallying for labor rights and against the war in Iraq were trying not to complain about the heat Sunday as they smoothed on sunscreen and chugged their bottled water.
Several dozen Santa Cruz County folk hopped aboard a Barrios Unidos charter bus to ride down to Salinas to commemorate the birth of Cesar Chavez, who led the drive for better pay and conditions for farmworkers. The temperature in Salinas reached a record high of 87, breaking the previous high of 81 from 1987. The official hot spot for the Central Coast was King City at 90.
Charlotte Spitzer was among the marchers who rode to Salinas for a noontime rally that included a speech by United Farm Workers President Arturo Rodriguez and a festival.
But supporting labor rights wasn’t the only thing on her agenda. She planned to hand out dozens of fliers urging people to write to their state representative in support of Senate Bill 921, which seeks to provide universal health care for everyone in California. (For information, visit healthcareforall.org or call 688-5561.)
Back in Santa Cruz, about 50 surfers paddled out for peace at Cowell Beach around 4 p.m. They formed a peace symbol with the boards to protest the war in Iraq.
“There are communities in all reaches of this earth that stand against Bush’s war in Iraq,” said Vanessa Montiel, organizer of the event. “We are American, we don’t support the war, we want the war to stop and we want to make sure this doesn’t spread to North Korea and Iran.”
While protesters tried to cool down the war, weather forecasters predict Mother Nature will cool down the weather, and possibly bring on the rain, this week.
Sunday’s temperatures crested 90 degrees in some portions of the Central Coast. It was 91 outside the Boulder Creek firehouse around 1:30 p.m. and 76 degrees in the shade at the California Department of Forestry’s Aromas station. Scotts Valley Fire officials said their temperature gauges read 86 degrees around 2 p.m. Sunday. Santa Cruz reached 79, one degree shy of tying a record set in 1969; Watsonville hit 81, according to the National Weather Service office in Monterey.
This past weekend’s high temperatures were caused by a ridge of high pressure keeping out the sea breeze, said Rebecca Waddington, weather service meteorology intern. That ridge on its way out, causing temperatures to drop. Today’s highs should reach the 60s along the coast and the 70s inland.
Clouds will make their way into the picture tonight with the possibility of rain entering the picture Wednesday through Friday. By the end of the week, high temperatures in the 50s and 60s are expected.
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Contact Ramona Turner at rturner (at) santa-cruz.com