Hello There, Sunny Skies : It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Summer--and It’s High Time

After weeks of hiding behind the clouds, the summer sun showed continued signs of awakening Monday and offered hope that it is finally here to stay.

“Things are looking up,” said Randy Ward, who spent part of his morning riding 5-foot swells off Dana Point. “These days, you see the sun anymore and it’s a big plus.”

After a gray, dismal July that had residents wondering if summer had skipped Southern California altogether, the sun burst through over the weekend and stuck around Monday, accompanying high temperatures of 89 in Anaheim and 84 in El Toro and Santa Ana.

There were some brief sprinkles in South County, but most local areas reported higher temperature readings than in past weeks.

Southern Californians can look for more sunshine at least through the week, said Steve Burback, a meteorologist with WeatherData Inc., which tracks the weather for The Times.

“Through this week and into the weekend, it (the sun) looks like it will stick around,” he said.

“It’s nice to have the return of summer--it sure was delayed a long time,” Burback added. While final monthly tabulations will not come for a few days, Burback predicted that “it will definitely be one of the coolest Julys on record.”

Explaining the warming trend, Burback said that a thick, stubborn layer of ocean air has finally thinned out, allowing the appearance of a low-pressure front of hot air from the California and Arizona deserts that had been kept out of the Los Angeles Basin.

From tourist shops to amusement parks to restaurants, merchants who depend on Southern California’s famed summer season were keeping a close eye on the weather.

Art Haack, manager of Ruby’s restaurant on the pier in Seal Beach, estimated that business there is down 20% so far this summer, a drop that he blames largely on the weather.

On Monday, with the hot weather inland pushing people toward the beaches, he said business was up by about a third over previous Mondays this summer.

“It was much better . . . and the main thing is we didn’t have the cold wind coming in and we had the sunshine,” Haack said. “From now on, I think it’s going to get much better.”

Not everyone benefited from the bluer skies, as reported sprinkles and continued clouds flirted with the South County.

“We were all waiting for the heat wave we’ve been told so much about,” said Todd McKenzie, lifeguard supervisor for San Clemente. “But I didn’t see it. We’re still in the middle of June gloom, like it has been for the last four weeks.”

But lifeguard supervisors throughout most of the county reported slightly bigger crowds on their beaches.

“Today was a beautiful day--no wind, warm, scattered high clouds, high surf,” said Capt. Ron Johnson of the marine safety unit in Newport Beach. “It was just a real nice beach day--the sun came out around 11 o’clock, and it hasn’t been coming out till 3 or 4.”

The warmer weather has been accompanied by high surf at Orange County beaches, reaching 8 feet in some parts, compared to normal conditions of about 3 feet. That made swimming and surfing particularly tricky, officials said.

A 17-year-old Santa Ana youth apparently drowned over the weekend in Newport Beach while trying to save a young cousin. And lifeguard officials reported dozens of rescues along the coast Monday as swimmers took to the water.

Endlessly Delayed Summer

Summer temperatures arrived in the county this weekend and are expected to stick around now that a layer of ocean air has finally thinned out. Temperatures have been much lower than for the same period last year.

Note: Some temperatures are meteorologist’s estimates, based on prevailing temperatures and type of weather that day.

Source: WeatherData