It was a hot one last weekend; multiple temperature records were shattered, including a 131-year-old record in downtown L.A. that was broken on Saturday.
Likewise, people took to the beaches en masse to escape the heat. They also brought their umbrellas to stave off the sun. One L.A. Times photographer captured the vibe brilliantly with this colorful photo:
You might think that the massive crowd is due, in part, to the city's swelling population. But as we can see from the vintage photos above, Angelenos have always flocked to the beaches in dauntingly huge crowds. The only difference between now and then, it seems, is that their umbrellas didn't have as many zany patterns (we can't say much about the colors, obviously, since the photos are in black and white).
According to the Weather Channel, coastal areas in L.A. should reach the low 80s this weekend. It's a little more tolerable than last weekend's highs, but still hot enough to warrant a trip to the beach. So go forth and partake in that L.A. tradition of filling our sandy shores to the gills.
