Summer Exits on a Fair, Albeit Smoggy, Note

As he sat on San Buenaventura Beach Monday afternoon--the last full day of summer--Norman White had just one unfinished task. The 62-year-old Ventura resident rose from beneath his umbrella and hit the waves for the first time this year.

“I can’t let the summer close without getting wet,” White explained.

Until a passer-by mentioned it, White did not know that that he and his wife, Carol, were enjoying the waning hours of summer, 1992. The sun crosses the Equator heading south at 10:43 a.m. today, officially signaling the beginning of autumn.

But even as sun-seekers and meteorologists were extolling Ventura County’s unusually warm and cloudless summer, air pollution officials were busy issuing the first smog advisory of the year.

Ozone levels crept to unhealthful levels over the Ojai Valley by 3 p.m. Monday, prompting the Air Pollution Control District to warn residents to cut back on strenuous activity. Smog levels rose to 131 on the Pollutant Standard Index, the point where senior citizens and people with chronic lung diseases are advised to stay indoors, said Doug Tubbs, the district’s manager of air monitoring.

The advisory was in effect for only three hours. Ozone levels are expected to return to the moderate range for most of the county today as a high-pressure system off the coast eases, district meteorologist Gary Arcemont said. Ojai Valley residents will experience unhealthful air, but probably not bad enough for another alert, Arcemont said.

It was a very mild summer in terms of air pollution, Arcemont said. Monday’s advisory was the first of the year, compared with a total of six warnings issued for Piru, Ojai and Simi Valley residents in 1991, he said.

The summer also was marked by a high number of clear, warm days, meteorologist Rea Strange of Pacific Weather Analysis in Montecito said.

“This summer has been beautiful,” Strange said. “It has been one of the best in my memory.”

From June 21 through Monday, Strange said, the county recorded 51 clear days--when skies cleared by 10 a.m. Last summer, there were just seven such days, Strange said.

Ocean temperatures, which were about three to four degrees higher this year, helped dissolve fog and clouds quicker this year, he said. Also, air temperatures averaged in the low 70s along the coast all summer, he said.

On Monday, temperatures rose to the upper 90s in Ojai, Simi Valley and Piru, while the mercury ranged in the upper 70s and low 80s in the rest of the county. Strange said the forecast for autumn offers a 58% chance of above-average temperatures, with the possibility of an early-fall hot spell.

“If we’re going to get a heat wave, this is the time of year we’ll get it,” he said.

As the seeming Endless Summer came to a close Monday, Sam and Gen Travis were out taking advantage of the good weather, as they have every day this summer. The Ojai couple could be found doffing their shoes to prepare for their daily three-mile walk-and-jog along the shore of a Ventura beach.

Gen Travis, 67, said she and her 75-year-old husband have run on beaches around the world. They found an extra treat at San Buenaventura Beach this summer, she said.

“We love dolphins and they’ve been playing close to shore a lot this summer,” she said.

Cornelia Balmer, 32, drove from Saugus with her two small children and a brother visiting from Germany to soak up a little end-of-summer sun.

“We were swimming and throwing ourselves into the waves,” said Balmer, her hair still wet from the dip. “The water is cold, but you get used to it.”