July Sun Banishes June Gloom : Long-Awaited Clear, Warm Weather Predicted to Last Through Weekend

After a marathon streak of gloomy weather, summer finally hit Orange County this week, bringing temperatures close to the 90s and luring to the beaches sun lovers grateful for the change.

“It just took forever to get here,” said Neda Saadai, 20, relaxing Tuesday on the sand at Huntington Beach. “Now that it’s arrived it’s great, but I hope it doesn’t go away too soon.”

Sara Galli, a Laguna Niguel waitress trying out a new bathing suit, agreed wholeheartedly. “It’s about time the fog lifted,” she said. “I’m a new woman; time to take off the clothes.”

Experts say the good weather should last through the weekend--and maybe through August.

“It’s looking pretty good,” said Curtis Brack, a meteorologist for WeatherData Inc., which supplies forecasts for The Times. “The June gloom has receded and July has come.”

This year’s exceptionally long “June gloom” resulted from an unusually extended period of stable weather that began in May, Brack said. “Once conditions have set in where you have low clouds and fog over the coast,” he continued, “it takes something fairly strong to dissipate it. This year there were no storm systems or cold fronts to sweep out the fog.”

All that began to change early this week, Brack said, as a bit of tropical moisture blew north from a storm in Mexico causing showers off the coast which broke up the clouds and fog. The result was temperatures on Monday ranging from 71 in Newport to 90 in Santa Ana. On Tuesday, it was 72 in Dana Point, 88 in Laguna Beach. And after a slight cooling today, Brack said, the heat should begin rising again into the weekend, with a weak offshore breeze starting Thursday.

“The weekend looks really good,” the meteorologist said. “It should stay pretty sunny into the early part of next week.”

All of which is good news to beach lovers, some of whom say that they’ve spent most of the summer indoors.

“I’ve been in the house watching the O.J. trial since I got out of school,” complained Alicia Johnson, 15, of Huntington Beach. “This is the first real good day.”

Shelley Lex, 21, of Lake Forest said that the foul weather had caused her to shun the coast. “I was really disappointed in the beginning when it was so ugly,” she said. “I’d end up sitting by the pool instead of enjoying the sun and the sand.”

And Chris Churchill, 33, a Huntington Beach carpenter, said that the unusual weather had lessened his enjoyment of his favorite time of the year. “When it’s cloudy,” Churchill said, “it’s hard to get into summer.”

This week for the first time, however, people began “getting into summer” with a vengeance, according to Dan Hoffman, a Huntington Beach lifeguard. “There are more people in the water,” he said Tuesday, “and more people here in general. It seems like a new season.”

That perception seemed to be shared by many on the beach.

“Summer’s finally here,” said Jamie Filgiano, 30, a cosmetic salesperson from Corona del Mar. “When I woke up at 7 a.m. this morning and the sun was already out, I felt great about it. The gloom lasted too long, but we’re making up for it now.”

Gina Meyers, a 16-year-old high school student from Long Beach, agreed. “Summer is totally the best,” she said. “It makes me happy.”

And Taniya Waters, 26, a visitor from Riverside County who said that she grew up near the beach and now “can’t stay away” from it, expressed hope for the future.

“I came down here last week and it was so freezing that I went right back home,” she said. “Maybe the heat will last through the fall.”

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Heating Up Running true to July weather form, the heat has arrived and is expected to linger through the week. A look at Tuesday’s temperatures around the county: *

Anaheim: 79 Dana Point: 72 El Toro: 80 Laguna Beach: 88 Newport Beach: 73 Santa Ana: 78 *

Santa Ana Scene Santa Ana’s high Tuesday was in line with the normal seasonal temperature but well below the record for the date: *

* Tuesday high: 78 * Normal high: 80 * Record high: 97* * Set July 11, 1968 (records kept since 1949) Source: WeatherData, Inc.