Alaskan Chill Chases Away Hot, Humid Dog Days

This is not normal, this business of cool temperatures and low humidity in August. Do not let your relatives visiting from Back East be fooled into thinking this is San Diego’s standard, mid-summer paradise.

Temperatures struggling to reach the upper 70s and 59% humidity will make for an exceptionally nice August weekend, said National Weather Service forecaster Wilbur Shigehara. Normally, the humidity for this time of year is 66% and coastal and inland areas are sweltering under 90-degree weather.

“People can stop wondering if the weather is always this nice in San Diego in the middle of August,” Shigehara said. “It’s not.”

“This extremely dry and unusually cool weather is courtesy of a cold front from the Gulf of Alaska stalled over the Southland,” Shigehara said. “Associated with it is an upper-level low-pressure system along the West Coast. All this adds up to weather more like May and June than mid-August.”

Shigehara said the weather will remain pleasant and sunny through the weekend. Hurricane Henrietta, about 1,300 miles southwest of San Diego, will bring occasional high clouds, he said.

Tides Are Rising

While the humidity and temperatures are down, the high tides are up. Tuesday night, the high tide was 6.9 feet, and Wednesday it was 7.1 feet, Shigehara said. No damage was reported at local beaches, and the tide will subside to near 6 feet by tonight, he said.

The surf is at 3 feet, and the ocean water temperature is 70. The beaches will be a little breezy, with winds blowing 10 to 17 m.p.h., Shigehara said.

“With the winds and the low humidity, there will be a lot of ventilation that cleans out the air pretty good,” Shigehara said. “This is a wonderful thing for the middle of summer.”

Daytime highs at the beaches are expected to be from 68 to 73 degrees.

After the mid-morning clouds burn off, it will be sunny and pleasant along the coast, Shigehara said. Highs will range from 73 to 78 degrees, and lows will be between 63 and 68.

Inland highs of 78 to 87 degrees are forecast through Sunday, with overnight lows a chilly 56 to 65.

In the mountains, high temperatures will struggle to reach the low-80s, and the nights will dip into the mid-40s, Shigehara said.

The desert will have partly cloudy skies today, and highs will range from 102 to 108 through Sunday. Overnight lows will be in the mid-70s.

The more typical, humid, dog-day weather of August is not expected to return to San Diego until the middle of next week, Shigehara said.