Spring Creeps In on Foggy Marine Layer

If there’s drizzle, fog and marine clouds in the forecast, it must be spring in Southern California.

Spring officially began at 12:03 a.m. Wednesday and many Ventura County residents awoke to a thick marine layer that persisted much of the day in coastal regions.

Get used to it, said Stuart Seto, a weather specialist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard.

“It’s still a little early, but . . . we’re getting into the time of the year where we’re going to see this pattern,” he said.

Indeed, the weather pattern should remain about the same through at least Monday with things getting worse before they get better.

Drizzle and fog were expected to develop overnight with some clearing this afternoon. In contrast to the high of 79 degrees recorded near Thousand Oaks and the 69 degrees at Point Mugu on Wednesday, temperatures are expected to peak at the mid-60s at the coast to the lower 70s inland.

Friday will be even cooler and cloudier, with more significant clearing for the weekend, Seto said.

Meanwhile, the coastal cloudiness and a weather condition that is sucking in smog from the Los Angeles Basin have sent the county’s ozone levels climbing to unusually high levels for this time of year, said Doug Tubbs, manager of monitoring with the Ventura County Air Pollution Control District.

Ozone levels are in the moderate category and are nudging the unhealthful level in some county locales, he said.

“Usually we don’t see this high a moderate level until late April or May,” he said.

For allergy sufferers, the advent of spring also means the beginning of sniffles and itchy eyes.

But so far the recent rains have kept pollen counts low, said Dr. Harold Rosengren, who has practiced in Ventura and Oxnard for the last 23 years. Since grasses cause most of the problems in California and don’t peak until May, it’s too soon to know just how bad the season will be, he said.