It’s Been a Cool Summer in the Literal Sense : Climate: Late clouds and below-normal temperatures kept crowds from beaches. But gloom brightens businesses such as tanning salons.

Dennis Paull stops work on the trench he’s digging for a new home on the Balboa Peninsula. He straightens, looks up at the cloudy, overcast sky and pronounces the summer one of the best in his 17 years as a construction worker.

“This is great working weather. Not so good for the beach maybe, but definitely good working weather,” said Paull, 35, his torso sweatless despite a day of hard labor.

And so it was this summer as slightly below-average temperatures and overcast skies, perhaps helped along by El Nino, made for a mild June, July and August.

The June Gloom--a pall of clouds that typically blankets the area during the morning hours early in the summer--hung on through July and August this year, causing average monthly temperatures to dip in some places inland and especially along the coast.

Meteorologists explain the cool weather resulted from an unusual low-pressure trough that stubbornly clung to the West Coast, allowing the morning clouds to linger longer than they usually do.

“In general, the Pacific Northwest has been unseasonably quite cold and that’s true to a lesser extent for Southern California,” said Steve Pryor, a meteorologist with WeatherData, the weather tracking service used by The Times.

Though the last few days have been sunny and clear, with higher-than-normal temperatures along the beach, the trend has been toward cooler days, Pryor said. In Dana Point on Friday, for instance, temperatures were three degrees higher than normal, while Laguna Beach registered a high of 83 degrees.

“There’s been a semi-permanent low-pressure trough over most of the West Coast this summer, which is not typical,” he said.

The unusual weather pattern has shown up before--the last time about three years ago, accorroding to the National Weather Service--but its cause is hard to pin down.

“It could be everything from atmospheric disturbances to El Nino,” said Todd Morris, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. El Nino is a phenomenon that occurs when waters off the coast of South America heat up. It is believed the warming may be responsible for unusual weather patterns throughout the Western Hemisphere.

Whatever its cause, the gloomy weather kept people away from the beaches, as police reported smaller crowds and easier parking up and down the Orange County coast.

“The number of cars that pay and park at our beaches is down dramatically this year,” said Lt. Charles R. Poe of the Huntington Beach Police Department. “The main reason is the weather.”

And as a result, some shops reported a drop in business: “It was really slow, like nothing I’ve ever seen before,” said Mark Iverson, a deck hand at the Fun Zone Boat Co. on Balboa Peninsula. “It was cloudy, overcast, no people, no kids. It was dead.”

Others, though, said the cloudy weather boosted sales since some stalwart beach-goers headed indoors to shop.

“Business has been good, really good,” said Akira Fukuda, store manager for Jack’s Surf Shop in Huntington Beach. “The weather’s been great. People are in here buying swimsuits, bathing suits and summer items.”

And for some, the gloomy days were a real bright spot during what is usually a slow season.

“Business has been really good, I’d say up 50%,” said Jennifer Sanders, manager of a tanning salon in Laguna Niguel. “If you live in Southern California, you’ve got to look like it. You’ve got to get your tan.”

Overall, high temperatures this summer were five degrees lower than normal in coastal cities such as Laguna Beach and two to three degrees lower than normal in inland cities such as Santa Ana.

But compared to last summer, this summer was positively chilly. High temperatures this August are six to nine degrees cooler than last August for places such as Anaheim and Newport Beach.

And that’s just fine for many people.

The weather has “been perfect from my perspective,” said Newport Beach lifeguard Josh van Eg, “It really hasn’t gotten hot or cold.”

Waves were reported bigger than normal. Surfline/Wavetrak, which monitors surfing conditions up and down the coast, noted 25 days of larger-than-normal swells as a result of storms in the Southern Hemisphere this year, as opposed to about 18 last year.

But the early morning gray seemed to scare away some surfers, leaving the waves more open.

“There hasn’t been the crowd down here this year that there has been,” said Mary Hartmann-Heflin, 32, who was leading a surfing class for a county program at Doheny State Beach recently.

“It’s been great for us,” she said, gazing over some 25 charges ages 7 to 14 as they knifed--and occasionally tumbled--through the waves. “We get down here in the morning and we get an uncrowded beach.”

Though the coast was cool, inland areas at least seemed almost as hot as ever, despite statistics showing an average drop of one or two degrees between the norm and the current summer in places such as Santa Ana.

“It’s been hot and dry,” said David Beaucage, 57, who was watering his plants in sweltering heat on a 84-degree day. Beaucage, who recently wrote a science fiction novel, said he spent his summer “indoors and air-conditioned.”

But Tom Bouton, 50, who was smoothing out a Tustin baseball field in a cloud of sticky red dust, said the heat didn’t bother him.

“I’m out in this all day,” said the 15-year-veteran groundskeeper. “I think it’s been a little hotter this time, but it doesn’t bother me.”

Augusts Past

A low-pressure trough hovering off the coast of California has made for a slightly cooler August compared to last year and to normal temperatures.

‘87 ‘93* Anaheim 72 73 Dana Point 65 70 Laguna Beach 66 68 Newport Beach 67 66 Santa Ana 71 72

* Through Aug. 23

N/A: Information not available

Source: WeatherData, Inc.

Researched by CAROLINE LEMKE/Los Angeles Times