Lingering Gloom Is Casting a Chill Upon the Waters

Bring wet suits. That’s probably the best advice to offer visitors.

The county has remained embarrassingly chilly, both at land and at sea this August. It would seem that the legendary “June gloom” has seriously overstayed its welcome.

And the folks at the National Weather Service say the current weather, though not necessarily unpleasant, will remain strikingly mediocre through the weekend.

Forecaster Wilbur Shigehara said the “strangely persistent” low clouds will continue for a while. “This is rather unusual. We should see a lot more sunshine for mid-August, a lot more humidity, a lot higher temperatures . . . a lot more of everything.”

Don’t Blame ‘El Nino’

Daytime temperatures for this time of year should be about 78, Shigehara said, and the ocean is usually just a few degrees cooler than that. But Wednesday’s downtown high peaked at 71 degrees, and the waters off Mission Beach registered a breath-taking 58 degrees early Wednesday morning.

And it’s not “El Nino,” the popular weather saboteur of years past. The official explanation this time is that a weak eddy is whirling around over our county, keeping the weather cool. This same eddy is also responsible for literally blowing the warmer water on top of the ocean northward, causing the cool water from the depths of the Pacific to well up.

Furthermore, the cool weather and cool water tend to feed on each other, perpetuating the vicious cycle of blandness, Shigehara said. “The wind circulation has a direct bearing on the ocean, and once the chilly water develops, it has enough momentum to begin affecting the air.”

Down at the beach, city lifeguards had a simpler explanation. “It’s cold,” Mike Pugh said Wednesday. “It’s been cold for a couple of weeks, and the tourists are really having problems with it.”

He said the chilly water hasn’t really caused any trouble, simply because fewer people are willing to get wet.

“Usually, when it gets into the 50s, you have to start thinking about wearing a full wet suit,” Pugh said. “Of course, that means there are a lot of people standing on the beach today.”

The forecasters say the blahs are likely to stick around at least another week, but some warming may take place by the end of the month.

The outlook for the weekend, besides the usual night-and-morning low clouds, is for a high temperature of 70 to 75 on the beach, accompanied by lows around 65. The ocean will hover around 62 degrees at Mission Beach, with slightly warmer water along North County beaches.

The coastal strip can expect highs of 73 to 77 degrees and lows of 61 to 66; highs inland will be 77 to 87, with lows 52 to 62.

In the mountains and deserts, dry high-level winds from the southwest will keep the usual late summer thunderstorms at bay. The forecast is for fair weather with a few afternoon clouds and gusty afternoon winds up to 25 m.p.h.

Mountain highs will reach 80 to 88, with overnight lows of 44 to 54. In the desert, highs will top 105, with lows of 70 to 80.