June Gloom : Marine Layer Casts Seasonal Pall Over Activities, Spirits

So this is it. The dreaded “June Gloom” has arrived. You’ve heard of it, you’ve read about it--you may even remember it from years past--and now it’s here in your very own back yard.

If you’re new to San Diego--perhaps you’ve just plunked down a large chunk of money for a choice piece of seaside real estate--you may think this is a cruel hoax. You may be thinking of contacting the Chamber of Commerce for a refund. Well, forget it. Just put away that suntan lotion and say hello to June, the cloudiest month of the year.

This month, San Diegans spend 57% of their daylight hours coated in the so-called “marine layer,” which has nothing to do with the proximity of Camp Pendleton.

It has everything to do, however, with proximity to the ocean and the desert, two of the features that otherwise make this a very attractive place to live.

Causes of the Condition

The folks at the National Weather Service here, who are used to fielding these types of questions, have an explanation: “At this time of year, the temperatures in the deserts really begin to soar, and with the high pressure off shore it creates an on-shore flow of marine air, resulting in the low clouds that you see in the night and morning hours,” said meteorologist Harvey Hastrup.

“It usually starts the last week of May and lasts all through June. We’ve been fortunate this year. . . . for the first 10 days of June we had, for the most part, pretty sunny days,” Hastrup observed. “But this is just as well,” he mused. “We were getting really concerned about all those sunbathers out there. We don’t want them to get too sunburned.”

There are other factors at work too, besides the fact that you planned all your picnics and vacation days for the most overcast, grayest days of the year. “Also, at this time of year, we have a northerly flow off Central California that helps reinforce this onshore flow,” Hastrup continued.

Eddy Effect Created

“Many people refer to that as the Catalina eddy. It’s a mechanism where fairly strong northerly winds off Point Concepcion and St. Nicholas Island, with low pressure due to the thermal heating in the deserts, creates an eddy effect and that also helps sustain the onshore flow.”

The resulting “eddy swirl” encompasses most of California, according to Hastrup. But, lucky us, sometimes we get all the clouds, while Los Angeles and points north remain sunny. “That’s because we’re low, we’re closer to the deserts than Los Angeles is,” Hastrup said.

The folks at the weather service, used to receiving calls from irate would-be sun worshipers, even have some handy statistics to back up their claims. August, they say, is the warmest month of the year here, but by no means the sunniest. During that month we can plan on 69% sunshine, which is only 1% above the yearly total sunshine average. November, believe it or not, is in fact the sunniest month of the year, with clear skies 74% of the time.

“You see, we always tend to forget that, in the wintertime, even

though it’s the rainy season, there are many periods where it’s just flat out Santa Ana and no clouds at all,” Hastrup said. “The actual amount of sunshine in minutes in a given day is the lowest in the summertime, but there’s more radiation coming in.”

So what does this really mean, besides a dramatic drop in bathing suit and sunscreen sales? Plenty. As it turns out, San Diegans seem to take this weather business quite personally.

“There definitely is an awareness of the weather,” said family counselor Lauren Van Praag. “In fact, almost everyone who comes in comments on the weather at some point in the session.”

In Van Praag’s experience, the cloudy weather does affect people, but in different ways. “Some people really like cloudy, yucky days. They remember when they were children, and it was on gloomy days they would stay inside and watch movies or read books. They like it. It gives them a sense of comfort, and they feel better in this weather.”

“Others cannot identify with gloom. They identify cloudiness with gloomy feelings, and they feel worse,” Van Praag said.

Psychic counselor Janet S. Little has had much the same experience with those who come to her seeking help. “Absolutely, it does affect people,” she said.

“People respond to the weather, but the weather is only one factor. They also respond to their own energy forces.”

Those energy forces, Little explained, spring from within, but are very often affected by the external environment. “You don’t like walking down the corridor of a hospital, do you? That’s because you are affected by the external energy surrounding you--the pain, the fear, possibly even death--you are absorbing it.”

“This type of weather affects some people in that it depresses them, it exacerbates that which is already negative,” Little said. However, she noted, for some people the gloomy weather provides an incentive to accomplish things. Simply put, “If it’s sunny and hot, people play.”

The hot, dry Santa Anas, however, have an even stronger effect on peoples’ psyches, Little believes. “They drive people nuts. They really get upset with those,” she said. Scientifically, she explained, “There are negative and positive ions, and when it gets real dry all of a sudden, people’s bodies respond to it.”

“If you get an extended Santa Ana, it’s going to make people crazier than 10 days of June gloom. If anything, the June gloom will put people into depression. . . . they kind of flow down. But they won’t be angry, attacking, high-strung, which is what a Santa Ana does to people. I don’t know how people in the desert live.”