Regional Report : Summer’s Gloom Cuts Beach Revenue : Parking profits: Cloudy skies and relatively chilly temperatures have kept sunbathers--and their cars--away from the oceanfront.

Ask Steve Benson about the weather and watch his smile disappear.

“Basically, we haven’t had a single day that was sunny all day since July 1,” lamented Benson, a parking collections supervisor in Huntington Beach. “It’s really been pretty miserable.”

The string of lousy weather is robbing Southern California governments of a vital source of revenue for maintaining public beaches--the take from beachfront parking lots and meters.

“Beach use and beach parking are completely sensitive to how the weather is,” said Eric Bourdon, assistant director for Los Angeles County Beaches and Harbors. “Quite frankly, I can’t remember when we’ve had this much bad weather in the last 10 or 12 years.”

Many frustrated beach officials blame a spate of chilly, overcast days for turning the region’s prime beach-going summer months into a financial bust. Although an economic slowdown might also be partly responsible for a dwindling number of visitors to area beaches, just about everyone agrees that the weather has been the real killer.

“What we’re hearing primarily is that this is the summer that forgot California,” said Bob Foster, manager of visitors’ services for the Southern Region of the state Department of Parks and Recreation. “The reports from the beaches are that it’s basically staying cloudy, fairly foggy and cold.”

At Santa Monica Beach, parking lot revenues plunged 40% in July--usually the most popular beach month. San Diego area beaches experienced a 33% drop. At Huntington City Beach, one of Orange County’s most popular summer hot spots, parking lot revenues fell 20% this season.

In Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, parking income has not been tallied yet this summer. But officials think they will feel the same pinch as elsewhere in Southern California.

“It was 82 degrees on Christmas Day and I don’t think it broke 65 on July Fourth,” said Jeffery Price, chief park ranger for the state Department of Parks and Recreation in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties. “It makes me think I’m in the southern hemisphere where summer comes in the traditional winter months and vice versa.”

State-operated beach parking lots in San Diego came up $39,000 short of expectations for July, even though parking fees increased this year from $5 to $6. Officials had expected to rake in about $102,000 from San Diego area beaches.

“Thanks to the weather, we’re charging more to park and making less money,” Foster said. In an effort to generate more income, San Diego beach officials are considering a proposal to begin charging where parking used to be free while lowering the rate to $4 per car at all 15 state beaches there.

State beaches in Southern California registered a loss of $278,000 in parking revenues in July--an 11% drop. Officials had expected to haul in $1.6 million during the summer season.

The take from parking lots and other user fees, which account for about 69% of the budget for state parks, pays for beach upkeep, salaries and other operating expenses.

“If we’re not making the user fees, then we have to take the appropriate cuts,” Foster said. “That’s what we’re faced with here very shortly.”

Meanwhile, county beaches along the Los Angeles coast also are ailing.

“June was flat, July was terrible, and August is off to a bad start,” said Robert Hindle, vice president of Parking Concepts, which operates Los Angeles County lots from San Pedro to Malibu. “I don’t know how much worse it can get.”

Hindle of Marina del Rey said he has grown all too accustomed to a dreary morning ritual: He wakes up, glances out the window, searching desperately for some sign of the sun’s rays.

“This thing is like the old watched pot that never boils,” Hindle said. “I have never run into a situation like this.”

Santa Monica lots had 63,000 patrons this July; previously, a July with fewer than 100,000 customers would have been considered a poor one.

Recently, the concessionaire that operates Santa Monica’s 5,000-space beach lot paid for a weather study that reached the rather obvious conclusion that the weather had been cloudy along the coast.

The study commissioned by Executive Parking also concluded that inland temperatures had been too chilly to lure residents to the beaches for the sake of a few hours of ocean breezes.

Most of the loss in parking revenue will be born by concessionaires who contract with beach cities and counties because the agreements require the companies to pay the municipalities a guaranteed minimum whether their lots are full or not.

In Santa Monica, for example, the city is guaranteed $2.3 million this year; the Los Angeles County contract calls for a $3-million guarantee.

But the cities and counties will also lose out on their share of the bonus income from a boom year. Last year for example, Los Angeles County netted $500,000 over its guaranteed minimum and Santa Monica received a $50,000 bonus.

Despite the gloomy weather conditions, parking officials are doing their best to stay optimistic.

“I think if the weather picks up things could turn around,” said Terry Brandt, director of municipal services for the city of Laguna Beach, where revenues were down $100,000 in July. “Maybe we’ll get a good month in September or October. Who knows?”

Times staff writer Nancy Hill-Holtzman contributed to this report.