Cloud Cover Keeps It Cool at Summer’s End

Morning low clouds followed by afternoon sun will keep temperatures in the upper 60s to low 70s in the eastern half of the county as summer fades into fall, a meteorologist said Tuesday.

The high temperature for Thousand Oaks on Tuesday was 69, while Simi Valley just scraped the 70 mark, said Kent Field, a meteorologist with the county’s Air Pollution Control District.

This year’s summer season, which ends today, has been unusually cool, Field said.

September usually is marked by heat waves in the east county, with temperatures often climbing into the 90s. But the first week of September was the only time this summer that the pattern occurred, he said.

The cool days of summer may indicate that the region is in for an early winter, Field said. But he added that long-range predictions can be skewed by many factors, including changes in air pressure patterns over the area.

Temperatures on Tuesday dipped even lower in Ventura County’s coastal cities. The high in Ventura was 67, with Oxnard reaching 69.

Cooler temperatures this summer helped keep the air unusually clean, Field said.

Pollution reached unhealthful levels only seven times so far this year, whereas Ventura County last year had 10 days in which pollution rose to unhealthful levels, he said.

Pollution is measured on a year-to-year basis, with the smog season ending Oct. 31.

Ventura County normally averages 32 smoggy days a year, Field said.

“We have a very clean year going so far,” he said.