A Lament on the Weather : ‘It Would Be Nice if It Rained, But It Doesn’t’

The warm weather and absence of rain that mark each summer in Orange County will continue through the weekend, weather forecasters said Thursday.

Emmett Franklin of the Orange County Environmental Management Agency said that rain fell only one day in the past three months--about par for the course in the area.

“It isn’t a problem because we don’t grow blueberries here,” he said. “It would be nice if it rained, but it doesn’t.”

Temperatures Thursday ranged from the low 60s to the mid-80s.

Lifeguard supervisor Richard Rozzelle reported a high of 76 at Huntington State Beach. “It was really warm and a little muggy, though the low this morning was 68. The wind was out of the south, and that makes it a little warmer for us,” he said.

As in Huntington Beach, skies in San Clemente Thursday were overcast in the morning, but the fog burned off before noon. The high there Thursday was in the low 80s, lifeguards said.

Weekending at the beach should be pleasant enough: surf two to three feet on an 11-second interval at most locations, with an 8- to 16-m.p.h. sea breeze and water temperature holding near a warm 70 degrees--within a degree or two of the air temperature.

Yachtsmen planning an overnight afloat were reminded to make provision for becalming in low clouds or fog. Otherwise, inshore sailors can expect southwest to west winds rising to 16 knots with one- to two-foot wind waves in the afternoon, and those venturing farther seaward were given a forecast of 18 knots northwesterly winds gusting at times to 22 knots, with five- to nine-foot combined seas from Point Conception to the Mexican border.