Sunny Afternoons in Sight as Morning Gloom Persists

Looking more like the misty gray skies of winter than the hot blue skies of August, San Diego stayed overcast Thursday but will brighten over the weekend, forecasters say.

“The good news is the sun will gradually come out beginning today,” said Wilbur Shigehara, forecaster for the National Weather Service in San Diego.

Night and morning clouds and drizzle will persist, but by the afternoon the sunshine will poke through the cloud cover, Shigehara said.

And none too soon, said the weatherman. Shigehara has had his share of calls from people frustrated by the gloom.

A woman from a local hotel called the weather service to find out the forecast, he said. Her guests were depressed, and she’s been so depressed she’s been eating practically nonstop, Shigehara said.

One man came to the weather service’s office to complain because he had the roof off his home during remodeling and was mad about this week’s rain, Shigehara said.

The unexpected rain has made the farmers happy though, according to Vincent Lazaneo, a farm adviser for the University of California Cooperative Extension.

“Certainly the rain is beneficial,” he said. “It knocks off a lot of dust and pests from the foliage. It won’t persist very long in providing moisture to crops, but it may green up the lawns for a while and help in our water conservation program.”

Though the moisture moving up from Mexico normally brings summer thunderstorms to the mountains and deserts, the storm centered over La Mesa brought an unusual end to an unusual month, Shigehara said. Instead of dissipating over the Sierra Madre, low- and high-pressure systems brought the storm over the mountains.

“The ghost of this low pressure is still here, but the high pressure will become more dominant, and the sunshine will gradually return,” he said.

The persistent low pressure that kept July skies wrapped under a marine layer created record-breaking conditions for July.

“It was a very cool, cloudy and wet July. The average monthly temperature was 67.4 degrees, the coldest since 1987, when the average was 67.1,” Shigehara said. (The average temperature is the sum of all the months’s highs and lows divided by the number of days.)

With temperature records dating back to 1875, this July ranked No. 34 among the coldest Julys, Shigehara said.

“We have to go back to 1976 to find a July that was cloudier,” he said. Because of the marine layer, San Diego received 50% of the possible sunshine, compared to a norm of about 68% for July. In July, 1976, San Diego received only 40% of the normal sunshine.

The rainfall Wednesday made July 31 the wettest on record, with 0.23 of an inch, Shigehara said. The rains pushed the month’s rainfall up to 0.24 of an inch at Lindbergh Field, making this July the fourth wettest on record, which dates back to 1850, he said.

Lindbergh Field received 0.01 of an inch the first day of August, with more drizzle expected during the night and morning hours through Saturday, Shigehara said.

Temperatures at the beaches will range from 68 to 73 today and over the weekend, with an ocean temperature of 68 and the surf at 3 to 4 feet, Shigehara said.

In the coastal strip, which includes the city of San Diego, temperatures will range from 73 to 80 degrees, dropping to 60 to 65 at night, Shigehara said.

In the inland areas, the highs will reach 80 to 88, with lows of 56 to 63 at night, he said.

Afternoon thunderstorms may strike in the mountains today and Saturday, but skies will otherwise be sunny.